Low carbon consumption and cleaner aromatics production integrated coke oven gas: Process design and benefit analysis

Abstract

The coal-to-aromatics(CTA) process has a significant negative environmental impact due to the problem of high carbon emissions caused by the low hydrogen to carbon ratio. The introduction of coke oven gas to partially replace coal is a highly feasible approach to improving the process. In this study, a coke oven gas integrated coal-to-aromatics process using methane dry\steam reforming technology was proposed and simulated. A comprehensive techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA) were also carried out to highlight the advantages of the proposed process. Findings reveal that the techno-economic performance of the COG-CTA process demonstrated significant advantages over the traditional CTA process. The results showed that the energy efficiency, hydrogen utilization, carbon utilization, and production cost of the COG-CTA process were 74.81 %, 53.27 %, 84.70 %, and 1289.19 M$, respectively. Compared with the conventional CTA process, the energy efficiency increased by 18.66 %, hydrogen utilization increased by 32.08 %, carbon utilization increased by 26.49 %, and production cost decreased by 39.39 %. The LCA results showed a decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 9.29 to 4.09 kgCO₂·kg⁻¹, as well as a 82.48 % reduction in life cycle water consumption.