Many CO₂-to-methanol initiatives rely on highly purified CO₂ from controlled laboratory environments, making it difficult to translate promising results to real industrial conditions.
Waste CO₂-to-Fuel deliberately takes a different approach: working with real flue gas from a waste incineration plant. These streams contain SO₂, NOx, particulates, and metals. This contamination makes the process more complex, but also far more realistic, as large-scale applications will eventually need to handle these exact impurities.
By operating under real-world conditions, the project aims to demonstrate which opportunities CO₂ conversion can realistically offer in practice.
From flue gas to methanol
The project develops an integrated process chain that brings three key steps together:
- Flue-gas pre-treatment
A robust and cost-effective purification system is being designed to remove contaminants and deliver a stable CO₂ stream. Techniques include pressure swing adsorption (PSA), ZnO filtration, and additional adsorption and filtration steps. - Syngas production via co-electrolysis
A 5–10 kW solid oxide co-electrolysis (SOE) unit simultaneously converts CO₂ and steam into syngas (CO and H₂). The high operating temperature enables efficient recovery of waste heat from the incineration plant, improving the overall energy performance of the system. - Methanol synthesis
The generated syngas is then fed into a thermocatalytic reactor to produce methanol. By integrating gas purification, syngas production, and methanol synthesis into one continuous chain, the project examines how this technology can become scalable and industrially viable.
MNEXT’s role
The project is coordinated by the MNEXT research group Renewable Energy Carriers at Avans University of Applied Sciences. MNEXT focuses on:
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testing and validating the full process chain
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performance analysis under realistic operating conditions
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detailed energy and mass balances
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techno-economic assessments to explore future scaling potential
With this practice-oriented approach, MNEXT supports industry and government in understanding how CO₂ conversion technologies can be implemented in the energy transition.
Towards circular fuels
Waste CO₂-to-Fuel demonstrates that CO₂ does not have to be a dead-end emission stream, but can become a valuable circular resource. The insights developed in this project contribute to new technological opportunities and practical pathways towards a future where industries rely less on fossil fuels.
