Techno-economic analysis and environmental assessment of methanol and ammonia co-production powered by nuclear and Cu-Cl cycle driven hydrogen

Abstract

In line with global efforts towards decarbonization and the need for sustainable chemical production pathways, this study evaluates an integrated process utilizing waste heat and electricity from a High-Temperature Gascooled Reactor (HTGR) to produce hydrogen via the Copper-Chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle for the subsequent coproduction of methanol (MeOH) and ammonia (NH3). The evaluation methodologies were techno-economic analysis, environmental assessment, and scenario analysis. The results indicate that nuclear-based methanol and ammonia co-production process yields significantly low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while its economic competitiveness compared to natural gas (NG) routes is strongly dependent on carbon pricing. The economic analysis estimated the levelized cost of methanol (LCOM) as 0.513 $ kg-1 and ammonia (LCOA) as 0.467 $ kg-1 under base conditions. The environmental assessment quantified greenhouse gas emissions at 11.73 gCO2-eq MJ-1 for methanol and 6.319 gCO2-eq MJ-1 for ammonia. The scenario analysis demonstrated that the proposed co-production process achieves cost competitiveness against conventional NG-based production costs when carbon prices reach 100-125 $ tCO2-eq-1 or higher.