Blue Fuel methanol production

As previously noted, Blue Fuel Energy is planning to use renewable electricity (hydro and wind), water, and carbon dioxide to produce Blue Fuel methanol as a biodiesel feedstock and a gasoline blendstock. In simple terms, we will do this by reacting hydrogen isolated through the electrolysis of water with waste carbon dioxide captured from a natural gas processing plant. The graphic below outlines the basic Blue Fuel methanol production process.



The first step in planning Blue Fuel methanol production using these feedstocks was to work back from an off-the-shelf, world-class scale methanol plant in order to minimize unit cost. In methanol production, size matters. A 1.5 million litres/day methanol plant requires about 2100 tons of carbon dioxide and 280 tons of hydrogen per day. Spectra Energy's natural gas processing facility in the Pine River valley near Chetwynd emits about 2200 tons of carbon dioxide/day—the perfect amount. It also has several other redeeming features that make it an ideal site for Blue Fuel methanol production:

1. it is near a good source of water that can be converted to 280 tons of hydrogen/day through electrolysis;


2. it is not far from a high-voltage power line;


3. there is sufficient land in the valley for constructing the world’s largest array of electrolyzers and other Blue Fuel methanol production facilities;


4. it is serviced by a trunk line of the CN main line.

Natural gas processors such as Spectra purify natural gas by removing from it various substances, including the acid gases hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide, which Spectra simply releases into the atmosphere. The alternatives are to sequester it or, as Blue Fuel Energy plans to do, recycle it. At a natural gas processing plant, carbon dioxide recycling starts by extracting it, along with H2S, from natural gas (sour gas) using amine solutions. The CO2 and H2S solution is regenerated and the liberated CO2 and H2S are treated in the Claus process to produce solid sulfur. The gas generated in the process contains CO2 and traces of H2S and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Since H2S is very toxic, this gas mixture is burned in air to convert the residual H2S to SO2. The vented gas contains air, CO2 (~10%), and traces of SO2. In order to capture pure CO2, the gas from the Claus process is treated to remove the sulfur-based impurities. The graphic below illustrates CO2 capture and purification at a natural gas processing facility.



As for obtaining 280 tons/day of hydrogen, this will require the world’s largest array of 300 plus 2 MW electrolyzers, which will pass an electric current through water from the river and decompose it into its constituent parts: hydrogen and oxygen. Statoil Hydro of Norway, the world-leader in water electrolysis equipment, has expressed their intention to supply and install the array, which will require an estimated 624 MW of electricity to operate—power that can be effectively provided by developing choice nearby wind farm sites and integrating them with existing hydro power infrastructure. Blue Fuel methanol production will create tremendous demand for renewable electricity in northeastern BC and, because methanol is a superb energy carrier, become an excellent means of transmitting stranded wind-generated electricity to distant markets. Blue Fuel Energy has formally applied to BC Hydro and BC Transmission for the required power and interconnect to the grid.