Power-to-X technology using renewable electricity and carbon dioxide from ambient air: SOLETAIR proof-of-concept and improved process concept

Francisco Vidal Vázquez, Joonas Koponen* (Corresponding Author), Vesa Ruuskanen, Cyril Bajamundi, Antti Kosonen, Pekka Simell, Jero Ahola, Christian Frilund, Jere Elfving, Matti Reinikainen, Niko Heikkinen, Juho Kauppinen, Paolo Piermartini

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    111 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This work demonstrates hydrocarbon production directly from water, solar energy, and air - called SOLETAIR. The plant includes direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide, hydrogen production by water electrolysis, and two-step synthesis bench-scale units that operate using grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity. In addition, co-feeding of hydrogen and carbon monoxide from gas bundles are utilized to enable scaling between units. This pilot plant achieved a total operating time of approx. 300 h with a combined production of oil and wax of 6.2 kg per day. The mass and energy balances in integration of the units are studied. According to the experiments and studies, potential and bottlenecks to improve the individual units and their integration are found. Finally, a conceptual Power-to-X plant is presented, which can achieve energy and carbon efficiencies of 47% and 94%, respectively, considering liquid and solid hydrocarbons as products.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)235-246
    Number of pages12
    JournalJournal of CO2 Utilization
    Volume28
    Early online date15 Oct 2018
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2018
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Keywords

    • Carbon capture and utilization
    • Direct air capture
    • Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
    • Power-to-X
    • Water electrolysis

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