Converting solar energy in desert bases into electricity or methanol for cross-regional energy supply is one promising pathway toward carbon neutrality. One of the current challenges of this approach is how to increase solar electricity dispatchability and reduce dependence on local water and CO resources for solar methanol production. In this study, we propose a near-zero-emission multifunctional system for combined electricity and methanol with synergistic conversion of solar energy and natural gas. Water-electrolysis-based solar methanol production serves as a flexible load to use surplus solar power, and the pure oxygen from water electrolysis is used in the natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) flexible power generation to supplement solar deficits and produce high-purity methanol feedstocks. H-doped NGCC can provide an additional low-carbon power supplement. A year-long case study is conducted to analyze the performance of the proposed system and assess the benefits of system integration. A new surrogate optimization problem is formulated to find the optimal system size configuration. The levelized cost of methanol is 442.38 $/tonne, and CO emissions are reduced by 83.13 % per year. The research findings provide a promising route for places with abundant solar and natural gas resources but water scarcity to produce electricity and methanol.

中文翻译：

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太阳能与天然气协同转化的近零排放多功能电甲醇联合系统

将沙漠基地的太阳能转化为电力或甲醇用于跨区域能源供应是实现碳中和的一条有希望的途径。这种方法目前面临的挑战之一是如何提高太阳能电力的可调度性并减少太阳能甲醇生产对当地水和二氧化碳资源的依赖。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种近零排放的多功能系统，用于将电力和甲醇结合起来，并协同转换太阳能和天然气。水电解太阳能制甲醇作为灵活负荷利用剩余太阳能，水电解纯氧用于天然气联合循环（NGCC）灵活发电，补充太阳能不足，生产高纯甲醇原料。 H掺杂NGCC可以提供额外的低碳电力补充。进行了为期一年的案例研究，以分析拟议系统的性能并评估系统集成的好处。制定了一个新的代理优化问题来找到最佳的系统尺寸配置。甲醇平准化成本为442.38美元/吨，二氧化碳排放量每年减少83.13%。研究结果为太阳能和天然气资源丰富但水资源匮乏的地区生产电力和甲醇提供了一条有前景的途径。