Li W., Zhuang Y., Liu L., Zhang L., Du J., 2019, Economic, Exergy, Environmental (3E) Analysis of Methanol Production from Shale Gas, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 76, 655-660.
Compared with direct utilisation as fuel, the downstream processing of shale gas shows great potential in economic competitiveness, in which methanol is a particularly important product. This study simulates a technical route for producing methanol from shale gas, which is evaluated from the points of economic, exergy and environment. The economic target is estimated by purchased cost curves, while exergy analysis demonstrates the distribution of exergy destruction. A hybrid LCI (Life cycle inventory) model is established to assess pollutant emissions by sources. The results show that methane reforming features the highest capital cost, while methanol synthesis requires the highest operating cost. The reaction systems account for 73.3 % of total exergy destruction. Electricity consumption dominates the environmental impacts of the whole process.
