Economic Performance of a Combined SOFC System with Green Hydrogen Synthesis of Methanol and Methane

In this study, a power generation system was constructed. The system mainly consists of a green hydrogen production system, a carbon dioxide utilization system for carbon dioxide synthesis of methane and methanol, and an integrated solid oxide battery power generation system. This system allows carbon dioxide to be recycled and fully utilized within the system while maintaining high power generation efficiency, providing a solution for global reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Considering that the system is applied to power generation as a utility with highly predictable revenue cash flows, the discounted cash flow model was chosen for the economic performance calculation. At electricity sold price $0.36/kWh, Rated output of the SOFC system is 750,000 kW, Photovoltaic (PV) capacity is 151,300 kW, discount rate is 0.03, overall system with a 50/50 methanation and methanol synthesis plant has a simple integrated equilibrium payback of 9 years, NPV of 10 years, and DPBP of 18.86 years. Overall, the proposed system turned out to be economically feasible.