Biohydrogen and biomethanol production through hydrothermal gasification process: a sustainable route for production of sustainable fuels

Project summary

Switching to low-carbon fuels is one of the key building blocks of energy decarbonisation and transition towards the net-zero target. In collaboration with Purifire Labs (PL), this project aims to combine experimental and process simulation approaches to develop an innovative biohydrogen and biomethanol synthesis route based on PL’s hydrothermal gasification process. Methanol is the feedstock for many industries, which is mainly produced from fossil fuel sources, thus, is associated with a high carbon footprint. Accordingly, there is an urge to find sustainable and clean alternatives to produce methanol. The proposed approach in this project is innovative and offers the production of biogenic methanol, which has a significantly lower carbon footprint and can particularly be used to produce sustainable marine and aviation fuels. PL’s hydrothermal gasification enables the production of syngas, required for methanol production, from wet feedstock, therefore eliminating the need for drying feedstock, which is a significant challenge in conventional syngas production routes. The main challenge to address is to optimise syngas composition (hydrogen-to-carbon dioxide ratio) and to minimise carbon monoxide content that adversely affects catalysts during methanol production.

Accordingly, the successful candidates will first investigate the kinetics of syngas production at elevated pressures within PL’s hydrothermal gasification process to optimise the syngas content. Subsequently, the syngas will be used within the catalytic processes to synthesise methanol, the main objective of which will focus on achieving an optimal production yield. In addition, the process simulation models will be developed based on the experimental data to validate the models and optimise the entire process.

The successful candidate will use PL’s hydrothermal gasification (0.5-1 tonne production capacity) and Cranfield facilities for experimental investigations. In addition, the successful candidate will build upon the process simulation developed at Cranfield and work with existing research to advance the process to the next level.