Under the need to reduce CO2 emissions, renewable energy sources for electricity (RES-E) and more efficient processes are needed to decrease GHG emission rates. Carbon dioxide utilization (CDU) for the production of fuels, chemicals and materials is becoming complementary to captured CO2 and a promising source of competitive advantage for the European industry. CDU processes are at conceptual design, up to small demonstration readiness level. Since the CDU process has to compete with well-established conventional synthesis processes, they may not be profitable at current market conditions. Moreover, to have lower carbon footprint than the benchmark process, it has been demonstrated that they need electricity from renewable sources when CO2 is combined with H2 as raw material [1]. This work aims at evaluating the connection of a methanol CDU plant with a wind power portfolio, to elucidate under which conditions this relationship is advantageous for both: (i) the CDU plant as a source of low-cost and zero emission energy, and (ii) the wind producer for the maximization of its profit. The business model proposed here lies in the methodology developed by [2], aiming at reducing the wind power forecasting uncertainty, between the closure of the day-ahead market and the first intraday bidding session in the Spanish power market. We have implemented an ad-hoc linear programming optimization based in GAMS that maximizes the revenue from the wind producer's perspective. The model considers the options of a wind producer of selling its RES-E to the day-ahead power market or of using its RES-E to synthesize and sell methanol. The intraday market is used as balancing market for the deviations of the wind power forecasting.@en

The future of carbon dioxide utilisation (CDU) processes, depend on (i) the future demand of synthesised products with CO2, (ii) the availability of captured and anthropogenic CO2, (iii) the overall CO2 not emitted because of the use of the CDU process, and (iv) the economics of the plant. The current work analyses the mentioned statements through different technological, economic and environmental key performance indicators to produce formic acid from CO2, along with their potential use and penetration in the European context. Formic acid is a well-known chemical that has potential as hydrogen carrier and as fuel for fuel cells. This work utilises process flow modelling, with simulations developed in CHEMCAD, to obtain the energy and mass balances, and the purchase equipment cost of the formic acid plant. Through a financial analysis, with the net present value as selected metric, the price of the tonne of formic acid and of CO2 are varied to make the CDU project financially feasible. According to our research, the process saves CO2 emissions when compared to its corresponding conventional process, under specific conditions. The success or effectiveness of the CDU process will also depend on other technologies and/or developments, like the availability of renewable electricity and steam.@en