Solar chemical energy storage desolate areas

How much energy can be recovered from a MeOH product?

The original electrical energy can be recovered from the MeOH product with a round-trip efficiency of 25%, which is suitable for long-duration storage, and with ηsolar-to-fuel ≈ 10% (≈ ηprimary), which makes it competitive for scaling up to commercial levels.

Can solar-derived co-rich syngas be used as a energy supply buffer?

Solar-derived CO-rich syngas from CO 2 could provide long-term, well-defined, efficient and energy dense MeOH energy storage that can be engaged as an energy-supply buffer for intermittent renewable electricity or used for consumer applications.

How many terawatt-hours a year would a 2040 energy-storage plant produce?

In terms of the 2040 energy-storage expectations, to provide 876 terawatt-hours (TWh) (or a 10% capacity factor) would require a production capacity of 157 megatonnes of MeOH per year (Mt MeOH yr −1) (based on the lower heating value of MeOH) or 43% more than generated by the current global MeOH industry 9, which is an ambitious target.

How does catalyst deactivation affect Ty MeOH values?

The yields and STY MeOH values decrease monotonically as expected with catalyst deactivation. In actual operation, a process optimization of a higher separation cost versus a slightly more productive catalyst is necessary before the STY MeOH values ultimately converge at high deactivation.

Is solar-co-rich PTL more productive than solar-direct-co 2 energy-storage option?

At this point the MeOH yield and STY MeOH value are ~6.3% and ~0.79. What is evident from this analysis is that even after around one-third of the rated catalyst operating lifetime, the solar-CO-rich PTL option remains more productive compared with the fresh solar-direct-CO 2 energy-storage option.