The power to liquid concept: Hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol and the production of oxymethylene ethers

Methanol, dimethyl ether (DME) and poly(oxymethylene) dimethyl ethers (denoted hereon as OME) are discussed as potential sustainable fuels and chemical platform molecules. The hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to produce these oxygenates is regarded as the base technology. An overview of the state of the art synthesis technologies based on CO2 and H2 is described. Furthermore, an alternative synthesis route incubated at Fraunhofer ISE that shows a potential efficiency increase for sustainable OME synthesis is proposed. In addition, a multicomponent thermodynamic model is described and validated by experimental batch OME synthesis.