Economic Assessment of the Hydrogenation of CO₂ to Liquid Fuels and Petrochemical Feedstock

To remove high concentrations of CO 2 from the off‐gas of coal‐driven power plants, a new process was proposed. The catalytic hydrogenation of the CO 2 leads to the production of C 2 – C 4 (petrochemical feedstock) and liquid C 5+ hydrocarbons (fuel). Thus, environmentally harmful CO 2 may be converted sustainably to useful products. On the basis of a process flow sheet, the costs for processing the CO 2 are estimated for different plant sizes. The price of hydrogen contributes significantly to the overall production costs. Further price reductions may be achieved by final engineering optimization of the process as a whole and specific unit operations.