Waste CO₂-to-Fuel

From flue gas to methanol

Most CO₂-to-methanol concepts rely on highly purified CO₂ streams. Waste CO₂-to-Fuel deliberately focuses on a more challenging and industrially relevant case: working with real flue gas, which contains impurities such as SO₂, NOx, particulates and trace metals. This adds complexity but makes the research far more applicable to real industrial environments.

To enable this, the project develops a robust and cost-effective pre-treatment system, including pressure swing adsorption (PSA) for CO₂ capture and additional purification methods such as ZnO filtration. The goal is to deliver a clean, stable CO₂ stream suitable for co-electrolysis.

Syngas through co-electrolysis

At the core of the process is a 5–10 kW solid oxide co-electrolysis (SOE) unit, which converts CO₂ and steam simultaneously into syngas (CO and H₂). This high-temperature technology offers excellent energy efficiency, especially when supported by heat recovery from the incineration plant.

The resulting syngas is then converted into methanol in a thermocatalytic reactor. By integrating gas purification, co-electrolysis and catalytic methanol production into a single process chain, the project aims to establish a scalable and industrially relevant demonstration system.

Performance, validation and scalability

All process steps will be tested under realistic operating conditions to assess stability, impurity tolerance and long-term performance. The project also generates techno-economic insights essential for future upscaling and commercial deployment.