A pilot plant demonstration of Direct Air Capture (DAC) of atmospheric CO2, as the crucial first step to synthesising carbon neutral methanol as a green marine fuel.

甲醇作为一种海洋绿色燃料具有巨大的潜力。几家航运公司一直在考虑将甲醇作为一种绿色燃料，以替代目前大多数船用发动机中使用的污染性柴油，但迄今为止，它们使用的都是由化石燃料合成的甲醇。虽然化石来源的甲醇是一种比柴油更清洁的燃料，因为它不会产生污染大气的颗粒物，但它仍然会向大气中排放新的二氧化碳，从而加剧气候变化。甲醇的潜力将得到最好的认识，如果它可以由直接从空气中捕获的二氧化碳和由电解水产生的氢合成。如果这些过程是由可再生电力驱动的，那么甲醇就变成了碳中性燃料。也就是说，在燃料燃烧时，二氧化碳只是在大气中循环，不会增加任何新的二氧化碳来增加气候变化的问题。在运输燃料的背景下，碳中性甲醇的概念相当于零碳甲醇。然而，实现碳中性甲醇的第一步是开发一种二氧化碳的直接空气捕获（DAC）方法，这种方法在经济上是可行的，并且可以在工业规模上进行。这就是我们的项目要实现的目标。我们将使用“洗涤塔”将空气中的二氧化碳去除到碱性溶液中。这种溶液将进入一个经过改造的电解槽，以气体的形式释放二氧化碳，并产生所需氢气的三分之一。非常重要的是，该项目试图确定捕获和释放二氧化碳的能源成本以及所需的氢气成本。二氧化碳的直接空气捕获方法还处于发展的早期阶段。我们计划进一步改进电解槽，以便所有所需的氢都可以联合生产，这将大大降低能源成本。虽然首先，DAC二氧化碳的目标市场将是合成碳中性甲醇，作为商业航运中化石柴油的碳中性替代燃料，但一个成功的DAC项目将为能够以碳中性方式合成汽油和航空燃料开辟道路。

Methanol has great potential as a green fuel for maritime use.Several shipping lines have been considering methanol as an green alternative to the polluting diesel fuel currently used in most maritime engines but to date have used methanol synthesised from fossil fuels. While fossil sourced methanol is a cleaner burning fuel than diesel in that it produces no particulate matter to pollute the atmosphere, it still contributes new CO2 into the atmosphere thereby adding to Climate Change.Methanol's potential will be best recognised if it can be synthesised from carbon dioxide that is directly captured from the air together with hydrogen made by the electrolysis of water. If these processes are driven by renewable electricity then the methanol becomes a carbon neutral fuel . That is, on combustion of the fuel, the CO2 is simply cycled around the atmosphere and does not add any new CO2 to increase the problems of Climate Change. In the context of a transport fuel, the carbon neutral methanol concept is equivalent to a zero carbon one.However, the first step in achieving carbon neutral methanol is to develop a method of direct air capture (DAC) of CO2 that is economically viable and can be carried at on an industrial scale. This is what our project will achieve. We will use a 'scrubber' column to remove the CO2 from the air into an alkaline solution. This solution will be passed into a modified electrolyser which releases the CO2 as a gas and also produces one third of the required hydrogen.Very importantly, the project seeks to determine the energy cost of the capture and release of the CO2 and the cost of the hydrogen that is required. Direct Air Capture methods of CO2 are in their early stages of development. We have plans to further modify the electrolyser so that all the hydrogen need can be co-produced which will lower the energy cost significantly.While in the first instance, the target market for the DAC CO2 will be the synthesis of carbon neutral methanol as a carbon neutral replacement fuel for fossil diesel in commercial shipping, a successful DAC project will open the way to being able to also synthesise petrol and aviation fuel in a carbon neutral manner.