The catalytic hydrogenation of captured CO 2 to methanol is a critical pathway for renewable energy storage and sustainable chemical production. Existing integrated systems, however, typically depend on external fossil-based steam for solvent regeneration and lack sufficient system-level energy modification. This study develops a fully electrified, steam-free process coupling second-generation PZ/AMP-based CO 2 capture with methanol synthesis. A high-temperature heat pump and mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) upgrade waste heat from the synthesis loop and distillation column to drive CO 2 desorption, eliminating all external thermal utilities. The system is evaluated through comprehensive energy, exergy, and techno-economic analyses. The heat recovery process reduces the specific utility energy demand from 3.66 to 1.11 GJ/ton methanol (69.7% reduction) and total utility cooling duty by 35.5%. Exergy analysis shows a 15.3% decrease in total exergy destruction and an improvement in exergy efficiency from 80.2% to 82.0%. Under optimized conditions (210 °C, 75 bar, purge ratio 0.01), the process achieves a hydrogen-to-methanol energy efficiency of 77.0% and a total energy efficiency of 43.9%, approximately 7.7 %age points higher than previously reported MEA-based systems. Sensitivity analysis confirms thermal self-sufficiency across purge ratios of 0–0.04. Despite a 23.5% increase in capital investment, the hydrogen-excluded levelized cost of methanol decreases from 90.62 to 84.91 USD/t (6.3% reduction) owing to eliminated steam expenditure. Break-even analysis identifies an economically favorable window under moderately priced electricity and relatively expensive steam. These results provide a scalable, electrified framework for power-to-methanol technologies. • Steam-free process couples PZ/AMP CO₂ capture with methanol synthesis. • Heat pump and MVR upgrade waste heat to drive solvent regeneration. • Utility energy demand reduced by 69.7% with full process electrification. • Exergy analysis confirms 15.3% reduction in total exergy destruction. • Techno-economic analysis validates economic feasibility under realistic conditions.
Yuan et al. (Mon,) studied this question.