The comprehensive comparison of syngas production systems driven by fossil energy and solar energy: Based on dry (CO₂) reforming of methane

In recent years, carbon emissions have received more and more attentions in mitigating climate and environmental problems. As an effective and sustainable strategy, solar-driven dry reforming of methane (DRM) system has great potential to greenhouse reduction and commercialization. For the reaction system, 10,000-ton syngas production processes driven by fossil energy and solar energy are respectively established in this paper to fill the gap of the lack of data in the field. Techno-economic-environmental indexes of the systems are comprehensively analyzed to check the feasibility of the solar-driven chemical conversion system. Comparisons show that: The CO₂ conversion of solar energy driven dry reforming of methane (SEDDRM) can be enhanced from 57.47 % to 70.92 % compared to fossil fuel driven dry reforming of methane (FFDDRM), besides the CO₂ emission can be greatly reduced from 1557 kg/h to 759 kg/h. In order to further reduce the energy consumption, it is necessary to optimize the separation process. Therefore, the separation optimization is carried out by optimizing the heat exchange network and coupling membrane separation. Through process improvement, the energy consumption and cost of solar-driven process can be increased by 63.7 % and 33.9 % respectively.