Production
Blue Fuel Energy will use renewable electricity to electrolyze water (decompose it into hydrogen and oxygen), and then catalytically react the hydrogen isolated through this process with waste carbon dioxide (captured from natural gas processing plants) to produce ultra-low-carbon methanol and gasoline.
We will integrate this “Blue Fuel process” with the “Lurgi MegaMethanol process” that converts natural gas to methanol. This involves combining the syngas from a conventional autothermal reformer with the carbon dioxide and hydrogen from the Blue Fuel process in a methanol reactor to produce a mixture of Blue Fuel Methanol and conventional methanol. Blue Fuel Methanol and conventional methanol are chemically identical, but Blue Fuel Methanol has a very low carbon intensity because it is produced from waste carbon dioxide. The oxygen supply for the autothermal reformer will be provided by the electrolysis plant that produces the hydrogen from water.
Integration of the Blue Fuel process and the MegaMethanol process will:
1) Generate two streams of methanol: an ultra-low-carbon Blue Fuel stream (10,000 barrels/day) with a carbon intensity (CI) of 14 – 32 g/MJ (depending on the source of electricity), and a MegaMethanol stream (30,000 barrels/day) with a CI of about 76 g/MJ. These streams can be distributed independently as a gasoline blendstock (4,000 barrels/day of Blue Fuel Gasoline; 12,000 barrels/day of Megamethanol gasoline). They can also be converted independently into gasoline by using, for example, the Exxon Mobil MTG (Methanol to Gasoline) process. Other options are to blend them for distribution as a gasoline blendstock, or to blend them for conversion into gasoline via the MTG process.
2) Significantly reduce the capital cost, and thus product cost, by eliminating equipment duplication.
3) Give rise to a scalable natural gas-based petrochemical industry that will allow BC to convert huge volumes of shale gas into value-added methanol and/or gasoline.
As more stringent regulatory frameworks for combating climate change emerge, Blue Fuel Energy envisages development of stand-alone Blue Fuel process methanol facilities throughout North America. These plants will be co-located with, for example, coal and natural gas-fired power plants and natural gas processing plants that will capture their CO2 emissions as a feedstock for the Blue Fuel process. As for the hydrogen required, it will be produced with electricity generated by stranded renewables (wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, etc.) and delivered to Blue Fuel plants via a network of pipelines.
Reality dictates that we will arrive at the above scenario incrementally. Integrating the Blue Fuel process with the MegaMethanol process will be a big step down the path. Along the way, Blue Fuel Energy will generate thousands of high-value jobs and revenues for the government, find markets for new sources of renewable energy, convert natural gas to a high-value commodity, and help BC meet its current GHG emissions reduction targets and low carbon fuel standard requirements.