This week Dr Wei Yu of the Industrial Information and Control Centre (I2C2), Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering returns from China after visiting CHN Energy (CE) research and development campus, Future Science City in Beijing. 

The joint research project is on Flexible CO2 capture and hydrogenation for Green Methanol Production and brings together China Energy’s New Energy Technology Research Institute’s Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) expertise with the I2C2’s Process and Energy Digital Twin expertise. 

The project focuses on the development of a large scale, flexible green methanol production system that integrates carbon capture from industrial flue gases with CO2 hydrogenation to methanol.  It addresses the urgent need for decarbonisation of fossil fuel-fuel-based power generation systems, especially under the increasingly dynamic operating conditions caused by high renewable energy penetration.

The research explores advanced technologies in chemical absorption-based CO2 capture, methanol synthesis under fluctuating feedstock conditions, and digital twin modelling including AI.  Through coordinated optimisation of the power – carbon capture – methanol synthesis chain, the project aims to develop a real-time responsive system capable of adapting to grid and process variations.

The team brings together multi-disciplinary expertise from NZ and China to jointly tackle these challenges of dynamic process integration, smart control, and carbon utilisation in this project.