(588a) Flexible Energetically Self-Sufficient Co-Production of Hydrogen and Formic Acid

The use of fossil fuels (gasoline, Diesel, etc.) for light vehicle based transportation has resulted in two major environmental quandaries: poor air quality in largely populated cities and increased carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere. The use of hydrogen fueled vehicles has been proposed as an avenue to address the aforementioned dilemmas. However, hydrogen production technologies have yet to achieve a generation system competitive with, for example, the production of gasoline. Several options exist for hydrogen production; one of the most explored has been the reforming of natural gas. However, conventional natural gas reformers release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A solution to this issue is redirecting carbon dioxide into formic acid, thus preventing its emission into the atmosphere.

In this work we propose a novel method to synthesize energetically self-sufficient and environmentally friendly process flowsheets, and we show hydrogen production as a case study. To this end we make use of commercially available technologies for the production of formic acid [1]. The resulting process flowsheet goes through heat and power integration techniques that allow the maximum utilization of energy in favor of hydrogen production, maintaining a self-powered plant and the carbon dioxide emissions at zero. Using the simulation tool UniSim Design, we show that there exists an optimal themodynamical and operational point for the generated process flowsheet.

[1] Reutemann W, Kieczka H. Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, “Formic Acid”. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2000