D1.1 - Report on initial process modelling of biomass-to-MeOH pilot plant

The BeBOP pilot plant will be built and operated at VTT (Finland) and will combine a gasification unit, syngas purification, syngas conditioning performed by a SOC unit, compression and MeOH synthesis. Since SOC and MeOH have to be integrated in the existing VTT facilities, the system is subject to constraints associated with the existing equipment. From the preliminary investigation, several options have been investigated, regarding:• Syngas composition, influenced by the biomass and inert gas used for gasifier operation.• Limitations on available syngas for synthesis, introduced by the capacity of the existing equipment.• The available cell surfaces in the SOC unit, affecting the oxygen extraction capacity and the syngas conditioning capability.• The possibility of syngas storage to decouple the syngas flow rates through the SOC and the MeOH units, compensating for some of the previous limitations. A simplified model of the integrated TRL6 pilot process has been developed. The results showed the capacity to reach the assumed 70% carbon conversion target for the pilot plant, with different MeOH productivity values that depend on the design choices. The amount of steam addition and the possibility of hydrogen injection from external sources influence the performance of the process and the sizing of the components.