A techno-economic analysis of the potential for the capture and transportation of carbon dioxide for utilization as an industrial feedstock in Nova Scotia

Abstract

Hydrogen, ammonia, and CO2 are three precursors for creating new industries in Nova Scotia. Methanol can be produced by combining hydrogen and CO2 and urea by combining ammonia and CO2. Producing methanol and urea requires a source of CO2. The missing precursor is CO2. This research shows that the captured 32kt/yr of CO2 from the biomass plant would require 4.3kt/yr of green hydrogen to produce around 23kt/yr of green methanol and 44kt/yr of green urea. Furthermore, combining 177kt/yr of green hydrogen with 1.3Mt of non-renewable CO2 could yield about 0.9Mt of blue methanol. Additionally, utilizing 1Mt of green ammonia could produce about 1.8Mt of blue urea when mixed with 1.3Mt of non-green CO2. This demonstrates the opportunity for CO2 utilization in value-added products. Overall, the available volume of CO2 in the province could use the expected volume of green hydrogen to make non-green methanol, or green ammonia for non-green urea.