Techno-economic and life cycle assessment for the zero-carbon emission process of the production of methanol from VOCs

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are one of the major sources of air pollutants, and the efficient treatment technologies for VOCs have garnered significant attention. The conventional VOCs treatment system converts VOCs into CO₂ and directly releases them into air, and it is one of the biggest challenges for carbon neutrality. This paper integrates emerging water electrolysis and carbon utilization technologies with traditional VOCs thermal conversion to produce methanol in a zero-emission approach, converting harmful hydrocarbon compounds into valuable fuel, methanol, without CO₂ emission. This paper conducts a comprehensive techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate their economic and environmental impacts. The research demonstrates that under current market conditions, the treatment costs for this technology range between $5.8 and $8.8 per kilogram. However, when bio-methane is utilized as a VOCs accelerant in this project, it significantly reduces the project's carbon footprint compared to traditional VOCs treatment.