Data Envelopment Analysis of Ammonia and Methanol as Sustainable Energy Storage Vectors

The increasing concern about global warming presses for a transition to more sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind power. To tackle the associated intermittency, chemical energy storage is witnessing a surge in interest from investors and policymakers. The efficient development of such technologies requires comprehensive analyses encompassing: (1) power-to-chemicals (P2C), (2) storage, and (3) chemicals-to-power (C2P). This work aims to compare ammonia and methanol as chemical energy vectors with other energy storage technologies. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to compare the assessed technologies in terms of economic and environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) indicators, ranking the different technologies and estimating their required improvement targets. Overall, this work sheds light on the potential role of chemicals in energy storage applications, analyzing their advantages and disadvantages, and proposing improvement strategies to facilitate their development and future implementation.