Coal plays an indispensable role in the chemical industry, in which methanol from coal is a largely crucial part. In the process of coal-to-methanol chain, a large amount of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere, which should be captured and utilized. In this paper, firstly Aspen Plus software is used to simulate the whole process of coal-to-methanol production chain. The simulation results indicate that the carbon footprint of a certain amount of coal-to-methanol process is 3.01t CO2/t methanol, and then we compare the carbon footprint of methanol production processes with two cases which are CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) and CCU (Carbon Capture and Utilization) with P2G (Powerto-Gas) to reduce carbon emissions. It shows that CO2 emission of methanol production after CCS is 0.64 t CO2/t methanol with reducing by 78.7% and that after CCU with P2G is 1.42 t CO2/t methanol, with reducing by 52.82%, and simultaneously increases methanol production doubly to 1378.31kt/y. The results show that CCS and CCU are effective ways to alleviate global warming.
Keywords CO2 emission, CCS, coal-to-methanol chain, P2G, CCU