Economic assessment of CO2-based methane, methanol and polyoxymethylene production

The results indicate that CO2-based production technologies are not competitive with conventional production methods under present conditions. This is mainly due to high electricity generation costs, high investment costs for electrolysis, and regulative factors like the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG) in case of energy supply from grid. A CO2-based polymer would closer to economic competitiveness than CO2-based platform chemicals. While the decrease in production costs of CO2-based chemicals may be limited in the next decades, a modification of relevant regulative factors could potentially promote an earlier commercialization. Relatively low prices for renewable energy supply may lead to commercialization options of CO2-based products until 2030.