Techno-economic optimisation of the CO2 value chain

The utilisation of CO2 within the Power-to-X (PtX) concept can produce value added products, such as fuels and chemicals that can substitute fossil value chains and has the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The CO2 value chain is still at an early stage of development and therefore early stage techno-economic assessments can substantially improve future decision-making and scaling-up.

Numerous alternative pathways exist to utilise CO2 and as such, the optimisation of the CO2 value chain is of paramount importance. In this way, very useful information can be provided to policy makers, investors and funding bodies. The problem will be formulated by considering different hydrogen generation technologies, CO2 sources and CO2 conversion technologies. Subsequently superstructure optimisation techniques will be applied to solve the problem and identify optimum techno-economic conditions. This project will involve a substantial amount of process modelling and the development of the relevant modelling skills. In particular, the project will involve the development of commercial softwares, such as Aspen Plus/Hysys and Matlab and other related softwares.