Thermal Methanol (with and without CCS)

Contents

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

Overview

In Macro, the Thermal Methanol pathway represents natural gas-based methanol production facilities using steam methane reforming. This technology uses natural gas (or other fossil fuels) as a feedstock to produce methanol.

Two variants are available:

• Thermal Methanol (without CCS): Standard thermal methanol production with direct CO₂ emissions. The process is a net electricity producer due to co-generation, meaning it produces more electricity than it consumes.
• Thermal Methanol with CCS: Thermal methanol production with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, capturing approximately 90% of CO₂ emissions. Unlike the version without CCS, this facility does not produce net electricity due to the energy requirements of the capture process.

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

Asset Structure

A Thermal Methanol plant (with and without CCS) is made of the following components:

• 1 Transformation component, representing the thermal methanol production process (with or without CCS).
• 4-5 Edge components (depending on CCS variant):
  • 1 incoming Fuel Edge, representing natural gas (or other fuel) supply. The fuel commodity type can be specified (e.g., NaturalGas, Hydrogen).
  • 1 outgoing/incoming Electricity Edge, representing electricity production (without CCS) or consumption (with CCS).
  • 1 outgoing Methanol Edge, representing methanol production.
  • 1 outgoing CO₂ Edge, representing CO₂ emissions (residual emissions for CCS variant).
  • 1 outgoing CO₂Captured Edge, representing captured CO₂ (only if CCS is present).

Here is a graphical representation of the Thermal Methanol asset without CCS:

Here is a graphical representation of the Thermal Methanol asset with CCS:

Flow Equations

The Thermal Methanol asset (with and without CCS) follows these stoichiometric relationships:

Without CCS:

\[\begin{aligned} \phi_{fuel} &= \phi_{ch3oh} \cdot \epsilon_{fuel\_consumption} \\ \phi_{elec} &= \phi_{ch3oh} \cdot \epsilon_{electricity\_consumption} \quad \text{(negative = production)} \\ \phi_{co2} &= \phi_{ch3oh} \cdot \epsilon_{emission\_rate} \\ \end{aligned}\]

With CCS:

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

Where:

• $\phi$ represents the flow of each commodity
• $\epsilon$ represents the stoichiometric coefficients defined in the Conversion Process Parameters section.
• Note: For the version without CCS, electricity_consumption is negative (-0.10), indicating net electricity production.

Input File (Standard Format)

The easiest way to include a Thermal 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/
│   ├── thermal_methanol.json    # or thermal_methanol.csv (without CCS)
│   ├── thermal_methanol_ccs.json    # or thermal_methanol_ccs.csv (with CCS)
│   ├── 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. Examples of input JSON files are shown in the Examples section.

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

Transform Attributes

Essential Attributes

Conversion Process Parameters

General Attributes

Investment Parameters

Economic Parameters

Constraints Configuration

Thermal 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,
                "RampingLimitConstraint": 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 Thermal Methanol asset.

Default constraints

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

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

Types - Asset Structure

The Thermal Methanol asset (without CCS) is defined as follows:

struct ThermalMethanol{T} <: AbstractAsset
    id::AssetId
    thermalmethanol_transform::Transformation
    ch3oh_edge::Union{Edge{<:Methanol},EdgeWithUC{<:Methanol}}
    elec_edge::Edge{<:Electricity}
    fuel_edge::Edge{<:T}
    co2_edge::Edge{<:CO2}
end

The Thermal Methanol with CCS asset is defined as follows:

struct ThermalMethanolCCS{T} <: AbstractAsset
    id::AssetId
    thermalmethanolccs_transform::Transformation
    ch3oh_edge::Union{Edge{<:Methanol},EdgeWithUC{<:Methanol}}
    elec_edge::Edge{<:Electricity}
    fuel_edge::Edge{<:T}
    co2_edge::Edge{<:CO2}
    co2_captured_edge::Edge{<:CO2Captured}
end

Where T is a generic type parameter that can be any Commodity type (typically NaturalGas).

Constructors

Factory constructor (without CCS)

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

Factory constructor (with CCS)

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

Stoichiometry balance data (without CCS)

thermalmethanol_transform.balance_data = Dict(
    :energy => Dict(
        ch3oh_edge.id => get(transform_data, :fuel_consumption, 0.0),
        fuel_edge.id => 1.0,
    ),
    :electricity => Dict(
        ch3oh_edge.id => get(transform_data, :electricity_consumption, 0.0),
        elec_edge.id => 1.0
    ),
    :emissions => Dict(
        fuel_edge.id => get(transform_data, :emission_rate, 0.0),
        co2_edge.id => 1.0,
    ),
)

Stoichiometry balance data (with CCS)

thermalmethanolccs_transform.balance_data = Dict(
    :energy => Dict(
        ch3oh_edge.id => get(transform_data, :fuel_consumption, 0.0),
        fuel_edge.id => 1.0,
    ),
    :electricity => Dict(
        ch3oh_edge.id => get(transform_data, :electricity_consumption, 0.0),
        elec_edge.id => 1.0
    ),
    :emissions => Dict(
        fuel_edge.id => get(transform_data, :emission_rate, 0.0),
        co2_edge.id => 1.0,
    ),
    :capture => Dict(
        fuel_edge.id => get(transform_data, :capture_rate, 0.0),
        co2_captured_edge.id => 1.0,
    ),
)

Examples

Example 1: Thermal Methanol without CCS

This example illustrates a basic Thermal Methanol configuration (without CCS) in JSON format:

{
    "ThermalMethanol": [
        {
            "type": "ThermalMethanol",
            "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
                    },
                    "elec_edge": {
                        "commodity": "Electricity",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false
                    },
                    "fuel_edge": {
                        "commodity": "NaturalGas",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false
                    },
                    "co2_edge": {
                        "commodity": "CO2",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false,
                        "end_vertex": "co2_sink"
                    }
                }
            },
            "instance_data":[
                {
                    "id": "thermal_methanol_1",
                    "transforms":{
                        "fuel_consumption": 1.66586,
                        "electricity_consumption": -0.10,
                        "emission_rate": 0.110645539
                    },
                    "edges":{
                        "ch3oh_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "ch3oh_node_1",
                            "existing_capacity": 0.0,
                            "investment_cost": 934641.774,
                            "fixed_om_cost": 37456.44,
                            "variable_om_cost": 1.8325
                        },
                        "elec_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "elec_node_1"
                        },
                        "fuel_edge": {
                            "start_vertex": "natgas_node_1"
                        },
                        "co2_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "co2_sink"
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Example 2: Thermal Methanol with CCS

This example illustrates a basic Thermal Methanol with CCS configuration in JSON format:

{
    "ThermalMethanolCCS": [
        {
            "type": "ThermalMethanolCCS",
            "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
                    },
                    "elec_edge": {
                        "commodity": "Electricity",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false
                    },
                    "fuel_edge": {
                        "commodity": "NaturalGas",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false
                    },
                    "co2_edge": {
                        "commodity": "CO2",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false,
                        "end_vertex": "co2_sink"
                    },
                    "co2_captured_edge": {
                        "commodity": "CO2Captured",
                        "unidirectional": true,
                        "has_capacity": false
                    }
                }
            },
            "instance_data":[
                {
                    "id": "thermal_methanol_ccs_1",
                    "transforms":{
                        "fuel_consumption": 1.7158,
                        "electricity_consumption": 0.0,
                        "emission_rate": 0.0110645539,
                        "capture_rate": 0.099576
                    },
                    "edges":{
                        "ch3oh_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "ch3oh_node_1",
                            "existing_capacity": 0.0,
                            "investment_cost": 981373.863,
                            "fixed_om_cost": 39328.8,
                            "variable_om_cost": 1.924125
                        },
                        "elec_edge": {
                            "start_vertex": "elec_node_1"
                        },
                        "fuel_edge": {
                            "start_vertex": "natgas_node_1"
                        },
                        "co2_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "co2_sink"
                        },
                        "co2_captured_edge": {
                            "end_vertex": "co2_captured_node_1"
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

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
• Synthetic Methanol - Electrochemical methanol production