Techno-economic and environmental survey of an industrial gasification and methanation plant for the production of synthetic methane from tyre crumb

International audienceA new potential industrial pathway to valorise rubber from worn tyres into syntheticmethane is assessed via a techno-economic and environmental analysis. In this process, tyre crumbis firstly gasified in an Entrained Flow Reactor (EFR), which produces syngas that is furtheradjusted to a H$_2$/CO ratio of 3, cleaned and finally reacted in a methanation reactor to producesynthetic methane. An industrial-scale gasifier (2.5 t/h) was modelled and all other elementary stepsof the plant scaled accordingly. Two different pathways were considered: the first one, wherebythe syngas adjustment is conducted by a Water Gas Shift (WGS) reactor, and a second one in whichH$_2$ produced by an electrolyser is added to the gas stream. Both pathways were shown to have asimilar global energy yield, whilst the electrified process demonstrated a significant improvementof carbon use (89 % vs. 35 %). The specific CO$_2$ content of the synthetic methane reached 400kg/MWh$_{LHV}$ and 227 kg/MWh$_{LHV}$ for the pathway with WGS and the electrolyser, respectively.Finally the Levelised Cost Of methane (LCO$_{CH4}$) was estimated to be equal to 105 €/MWh synthetic fuel, waste valorisation, electrolysis, carbon assessment for the pathway with WGS and 18€/MWh$_{HHV}$ for the pathway with the electrolyser

Techno-economic and environmental survey of an industrial gasification and methanation plant for the production of synthetic methane from tyre crumb

International audienceA new potential industrial pathway to valorise rubber from worn tyres into syntheticmethane is assessed via a techno-economic and environmental analysis. In this process, tyre crumbis firstly gasified in an Entrained Flow Reactor (EFR), which produces syngas that is furtheradjusted to a H$_2$/CO ratio of 3, cleaned and finally reacted in a methanation reactor to producesynthetic methane. An industrial-scale gasifier (2.5 t/h) was modelled and all other elementary stepsof the plant scaled accordingly. Two different pathways were considered: the first one, wherebythe syngas adjustment is conducted by a Water Gas Shift (WGS) reactor, and a second one in whichH$_2$ produced by an electrolyser is added to the gas stream. Both pathways were shown to have asimilar global energy yield, whilst the electrified process demonstrated a significant improvementof carbon use (89 % vs. 35 %). The specific CO$_2$ content of the synthetic methane reached 400kg/MWh$_{LHV}$ and 227 kg/MWh$_{LHV}$ for the pathway with WGS and the electrolyser, respectively.Finally the Levelised Cost Of methane (LCO$_{CH4}$) was estimated to be equal to 105 €/MWh synthetic fuel, waste valorisation, electrolysis, carbon assessment for the pathway with WGS and 18€/MWh$_{HHV}$ for the pathway with the electrolyser