Verde Clean Fuels participating in consortium awarded DOE funding for study of zero-emission methanol production technology
23 April 2024
Verde Clean Fuels, a renewable energy company focused on the development of commercial production facilities to convert syngas derived from diverse feedstocks into gasoline, announced that a consortium led by TDA Research and including Verde, has been awarded funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to complete a conceptual design study for a system having the potential of capturing and utilizing ambient CO2 to produce green methanol.
Verde Clean Fuels demo plant
Under the award, TDA will design a direct air capture (DAC) process for sourcing of CO2 from the atmosphere and lead the integration of the DAC with the methanol plant. Verde plans to design and model the methanol production unit using its proprietary STG+ technology, with the goal to utilize CO2 from the DAC, and hydrogen from a carbon-free source, to produce green methanol. Several other consortium partners will also contribute.
The University of Colorado – Denver will carry out a lifecycle analysis using process input from TDA. As reflected in the overall project plan, TDA and Verde Clean Fuels plan to complete conceptual design and review the technoeconomic and technology gap analyses and develop the technology maturation plan.
The award and project period will last to the end of calendar year 2024. Total funding under the award to the consortium is $400,000. An additional $100,000 is expected to come from non-DOE sources, for aggregate funding of up to $500,000 for the project. Based on the results of the study, other project phases may follow.
As methanol is a broadly used chemical feedstock, Verde expects that green methanol will play a vital role in decarbonizing the chemical industry. Also, when used as a liquid fuel, green methanol may be one of the more viable renewable fuel options for the maritime industry.
Verde’s STG+ converts syngas into fully finished fuels that require no additional refining, such as Reformulated Blend-stock for Oxygenate Blending (RBOB) gasoline.
Originally founded in 2007 as Primus Green Energy, Verde became Bluescape Clean Fuels in 2020. On February 15, 2023, the company went public as Verde Clean Fuels, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol VGAS.
I am not sure what the point of this project is. Separate research on DAC of CO2 and on synthesis of methanol from CO2 and H2 seems worthwhile, but until someone has developed a DAC process with reasonable costs I see no point in doing a demo of atmospheric CO2 to methanol.
Posted by: Roger Brown | 23 April 2024 at 07:17 AM
Greenwashing scam
Posted by: dursun | 23 April 2024 at 09:49 PM
STG means syngas to gasoline, much better to make gasoline, more widely used than methanol, it sells for a higher price as well.
Posted by: SJC | 24 April 2024 at 12:36 AM
If you are interested in a comparatively recent review of DAC technology that is not hidden behind a pay wall you can find one here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsus.2023.1167713/full. The situation does not look promising. The technological barriers to economically practical DAC still look formidable.
Posted by: Roger Brown | 24 April 2024 at 07:24 AM
Roger:
From your link, section 3.5
' the debate to achieve the highly ambitious target of $100–300/tCO2 viability skeptical '
!! so there pie in the sky, all breakthroughs counted in, results in a cost several times higher than growing plants and burying them with salt!
This is a nonsense.
Other links and attempted costings confirm that conclusion, for instance:
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-inside-out-ambient-air-capture-cheaper.html
' At least in theory, the team has performed that scale-up, using their experimental data to project the economics of a practical system. They found the system could capture CO2 for $150 to $200 per ton—significantly less than commercial systems under construction that are estimated to capture carbon for $300 to $600 per ton.'
Wow! So with a following wind, and breakthrough technology, we can perhaps dream of a system which is simply several times more expensive than plants and burying them, one way or another.
Posted by: Davemart | 24 April 2024 at 09:27 AM
Put Power Plant CO2 into the ground you can pull it out for 10 bucks a ton no big deal
Posted by: SJC | 24 April 2024 at 10:03 AM