Synthetic Methanol (Electrochemical)

Contents

Overview | Asset Structure | Flow Equations | Input File (Standard Format) | Types - Asset Structure | Constructors | Examples

Overview

In Macro, the Synthetic Methanol asset represents an electrochemical methanol production facility that uses hydrogen and captured CO₂ as feedstocks. This technology produces methanol through electrochemical synthesis, typically using renewable electricity. The process uses CO₂ as a feedstock (carbon utilization), with approximately 10% of the consumed CO₂ being emitted during the process.

These assets are defined using either JSON or CSV input files placed in the assets directory, typically named with descriptive identifiers like synthetic_methanol.json or synthetic_methanol.csv.

Asset Structure

A Synthetic Methanol plant is made of the following components:

• 1 Transformation component, representing the electrochemical methanol synthesis process.
• 5 Edge components:
  • 1 incoming Hydrogen Edge, representing hydrogen supply.
  • 1 incoming CO₂Captured Edge, representing captured CO₂ supply (used as feedstock).
  • 1 incoming Electricity Edge, representing electricity consumption.
  • 1 outgoing Methanol Edge, representing methanol production.
  • 1 outgoing CO₂ Edge, representing CO₂ emissions (approximately 10% of consumed CO₂).

Here is a graphical representation of the Synthetic Methanol asset:

Flow Equations

The Synthetic Methanol asset follows these stoichiometric relationships:

\[\begin{aligned} \phi_{h2} &= \phi_{ch3oh} \cdot \epsilon_{h2\_consumption} \\ \phi_{co2\_captured} &= \phi_{ch3oh} \cdot \epsilon_{co2\_consumption} \\ \phi_{elec} &= \phi_{ch3oh} \cdot \epsilon_{electricity\_consumption} \\ \phi_{co2} &= \phi_{co2\_captured} \cdot \epsilon_{emission\_rate} \\ \end{aligned}\]

Where:

• $\phi$ represents the flow of each commodity
• $\epsilon$ represents the stoichiometric coefficients defined in the Conversion Process Parameters section.

Input File (Standard Format)

The easiest way to include a Synthetic Methanol asset in a model is to create a new file (either JSON or CSV) and place it in the assets directory together with the other assets.

your_case/
├── assets/
│   ├── synthetic_methanol.json    # or synthetic_methanol.csv
│   ├── other_assets.json
│   └── ...
├── system/
├── settings/
└── ...

This file can either be created manually, or using the template_asset function, as shown in the Adding an Asset to a System section of the User Guide. The file will be automatically loaded when you run your Macro model. An example of an input JSON file is shown in the Examples section.

The following tables outline the attributes that can be set for a Synthetic Methanol asset.

Transform Attributes

Essential Attributes

Conversion Process Parameters

General Attributes

Investment Parameters

Economic Parameters

Constraints Configuration

Synthetic Methanol assets can have different constraints applied to them, and the user can configure them using the following fields:

For example, if the user wants to apply the BalanceConstraint to the transformation component and the CapacityConstraint to the output edge, the constraints fields should be set as follows:

{
    "transform_constraints": {
        "BalanceConstraint": true
    },
    "edges":{
        "ch3oh_edge": {
            "constraints": {
                "CapacityConstraint": true
            }
        }
    }
}

Users can refer to the Adding Asset Constraints to a System section of the User Guide for a list of all the constraints that can be applied to the different components of a Synthetic Methanol asset.

Default constraints

To simplify the input file and the asset configuration, the following constraints are applied to the Synthetic Methanol asset by default:

• Balance constraint (applied to the transformation component)
• Capacity constraint (applied to the output methanol edge)

Types - Asset Structure

The Synthetic Methanol asset is defined as follows:

struct SyntheticMethanol <: AbstractAsset
    id::AssetId
    synthetic_methanol_transform::Transformation
    co2_captured_edge::Edge{<:CO2Captured}
    ch3oh_edge::Edge{<:Methanol}
    elec_edge::Edge{<:Electricity}
    h2_edge::Edge{<:Hydrogen}
    co2_emission_edge::Edge{<:CO2}
end

Constructors

Factory constructor

make(asset_type::Type{SyntheticMethanol}, data::AbstractDict{Symbol,Any}, system::System)

Stoichiometry balance data

synthetic_methanol_transform.balance_data = Dict(
    :co2_consumption => Dict(
        ch3oh_edge.id => get(transform_data, :co2_consumption, 0.0),
        co2_captured_edge.id => 1.0,
    ),
    :elec_consumption => Dict(
        ch3oh_edge.id => get(transform_data, :electricity_consumption, 0.0),
        elec_edge.id => 1.0,
    ),
    :h2_consumption => Dict(
        ch3oh_edge.id => get(transform_data, :h2_consumption, 0.0),
        h2_edge.id => 1.0,
    ),
    :emissions => Dict(
        co2_captured_edge.id => get(transform_data, :emission_rate, 0.0),
        co2_emission_edge.id => 1.0
    )
)

Examples

This example illustrates a basic Synthetic Methanol configuration in JSON format:

{
    "SyntheticMethanol": [
        {
            "type": "SyntheticMethanol",
            "global_data":{
                "nodes": {},
                "transforms": {
                    "timedata": "Methanol"
                },
                "edges":{
                    "ch3oh_edge": {
                        "commodity": "Methanol",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": true,
                        "can_retire": true,
                        "can_expand": true,
                        "integer_decisions": false
                    },
                    "h2_edge": {
                        "commodity": "Hydrogen",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false
                    },
                    "co2_captured_edge": {
                        "commodity": "CO2Captured",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false
                    },
                    "elec_edge": {
                        "commodity": "Electricity",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false
                    },
                    "co2_emission_edge": {
                        "commodity": "CO2",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false,
                        "end_vertex": "co2_sink"
                    }
                }
            },
            "instance_data":[
                {
                    "id": "synthetic_methanol_1",
                    "transforms":{
                        "h2_consumption": 1.138,
                        "co2_consumption": 0.248,
                        "electricity_consumption": 0.271,
                        "emission_rate": 0.10
                    },
                    "edges":{
                        "ch3oh_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "ch3oh_node_1",
                            "existing_capacity": 0.0,
                            "investment_cost": 685961.676,
                            "fixed_om_cost": 1175.6697,
                            "variable_om_cost": 0.0121
                        },
                        "h2_edge": {
                            "start_vertex": "h2_node_1"
                        },
                        "co2_captured_edge": {
                            "start_vertex": "co2_captured_node_1"
                        },
                        "elec_edge": {
                            "start_vertex": "elec_node_1"
                        },
                        "co2_emission_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "co2_sink"
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

See Also

• Edges - Components that connect Vertices and carry flows
• Transformations - Processes that transform flows of several Commodities
• Nodes - Network nodes that allow for import and export of commodities
• Vertices - Network nodes that edges connect
• Assets - Higher-level components made from edges, nodes, storage, and transformations
• Commodities - Types of resources stored by Commodities
• Time Data - Temporal modeling framework
• Constraints - Additional constraints for Storage and other components
• Thermal Methanol - Thermal methanol production without CCS
• Thermal Methanol - Thermal methanol production (with and without CCS)