Authors: , , , , , ,
Abstract:
The growing accumulation of municipal solid waste and the urgent need for low-carbon liquid fuels present significant challenges and opportunities for sustainable thermal energy systems. This study addresses the problem of efficiently converting municipal solid waste into green methanol while maximizing energy utilization and minimizing environmental impacts. An integrated waste-to-methanol system is evaluated by the thermodynamic analysis, combining municipal solid waste incineration, carbon dioxide capture, renewable electricity-driven water electrolysis for hydrogen production, methanol synthesis, and multi-level waste heat recovery using dual organic Rankine cycle systems. Comprehensive thermodynamic, economic, and environmental analyses are conducted to assess system performance and identify key influencing parameters. The system processes 1000 kg/h of municipal solid waste and produces 11.24 tons/day of high-purity methanol with a mass fraction of 99.76%, while simultaneously generating 419.1 kW of net electricity. The overall energy efficiency and exergy efficiency reach 30.63% and 29.32%, respectively. The carbon emission intensity is 0.1204 kg CO2/kg MeOH, and the levelized methanol production cost is estimated at 701.49 $/ton. Sensitivity analysis reveals that turbine inlet conditions, carbon dioxide liquefaction temperature, and methanol extraction ratio are the dominant parameters influencing system efficiency and economic performance. The results demonstrate that integrating municipal solid waste utilization with renewable hydrogen production and waste heat recovery provides a promising pathway for efficient and low-carbon methanol production compared with conventional methanol production, offering both environmental and techno-economic quantitative evidence of performance improvements.
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