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Abstract: China, an oil and NG scarcity country, is coal dependent, and this situation will remain for a long time. DME, as an ideal replacer of liquid fuel, is considered to develop. The efficient way of producing DME from coal is under research. Considering the components of coal and natural gas (NG), we choose co-feed (coal and NG) and co-production (electricity and DME) system (Co–Co system) to be studied on. Three systems which are the standalone system, co-generation system and Co–Co system are simulated by Aspen-Plus. The simulation results concerning material flows, exergy flows, CO2 emission and the evaluation indexes are obtained. It is found that Co–Co system has higher exergy efficiency, higher economic benefit, and it is environmental friendly because of releasing the least CO2.The analysis illustrates that Co–Co system has obviously advantage over the other two kinds of systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • Traditional and CDU pathways were evaluated multi-dimensionally. • The MFA-LCA-TEA coupled model was conducted with industrial data in China. • 23 pathways and 7 chemicals were covered for systematic analysis. • Low-carbon strategies increase the comprehensive competitiveness of CDU pathways. • CO 2 emissions and economic growth can be decoupled for sustainable chemical production. Carbon dioxide utilization (CDU) for chemical production is beneficial for achieving carbon neutrality and constructing an artificial carbon cycle. However, the industrialization of CDU technology is facing the concerns about environmental impacts, energy consumption and economic effects. To better illustrate the comprehensive performances of CDU technology and optimize chemical production, this study conducts a multi-dimensional evaluation on CDU and traditional pathways following a scenario-based optimization, which covers 23 pathways for 7 identified bulk chemicals. The results reveal that ethanol is the most suitable chemical to be transitioned preferentially and produced with CDU technology based on China's current technology level. The development of electro-catalytic conversion may benefit CDU pathways especially for oxirane. The results of scenario analysis reveal that the competitivity and priority of various pathways may change significantly with the deployment of low-carbon strategies. Then the results of conditional optimization reveal that the transition of chemical production pattern motivated by CDU may significantly impact on resource consumption and technology proportion, which brings about an increase of 680 % in H 2 consumption. The transition may also decouple the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth, which drives the production emissions to drop from 193 Mt/year to −27 Mt/year and carbon intensity to drop from 80 t/104 USD to −8 t/104 USD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]