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• A assessment framework of methanol production integrated with a hybrid hydrogen strategy is established. • To comprehensively utilize hydrogen, "balance points" are proposed and defined. • The detailed techno-economic-environment performance are calculated. • The novel hybrid hydrogen supply strategy shows superior performance. A techno-economic-environment assessment framework of methanol production from coal integrated with a hybrid hydrogen supply strategy is established, gathering an insightful perspective of its broad sustainability and providing an effectually hybrid green, blue, and gray hydrogen supply plan to evaluate its performance. Process simulation and life-cycle analysis indicate that coal to methanol integrated with reverse water gas shift using coal to hydrogen (CTM-RWGS-CTH) and CTM-RWGS with water electrolysis using wind energy process show relatively independent excellent technical and environmental performance, respectively. To comprehensively utilize hydrogen energy to realize process integration and intensification, "balance points" are proposed and defined. Moreover, eleven possible hybrid hydrogen supply modes are developed and analyzed. Results show that the quaternary H 2 supply strategy exhibits enormous economic advantages, 0.051 $/kg methanol. The "balance point" in the quaternary H 2 supply strategy is CTM-RWGS-CTH 13%, CTM-RWGS H 2 from CTH without carbon capture, utilization and storage 37%, CTM-RWGS H 2 from byproduct gas to hydrogen 16%, and CTM-RWGS H 2 from water electrolysis using wind energy process 34%. Our hybrid hydrogen supply strategy embraces the full potential role of emerging CTM-RWGS processes to achieve low-carbon consumption and cleaner production, which should prevail over purely unitary hydrogen resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Non-catalytic hydrogenation of CO 2 and CO was studied with auxiliary N 2 and argon. • The highest methanol selectivity and yield were 86% and 22.5%, respectively. • N 2 had better performance than argon gas as a third body in the plasma reactions. Direct utilisation of CO 2 to methanol via environmentally friendly gas-to-liquid processes with plasma poses various challenges, such as low methanol selectivity. This study explores the non-catalytic hydrogenation of CO 2 and CO gas mixtures in a self-cooling dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma at atmospheric pressure and temperature. Small amounts of N 2 and argon were input as auxiliary gases to investigate their effect on methanol production and a probable reaction mechanism was suggested. A H 2 + CO 2 + CO + N 2 mixture minimised methanation and the reverse water–gas shift competitive reactions, thus enhancing methanol selectivity and yield to 86 % and 22.5 %, respectively. Furthermore, N 2 helped reduce plasma power requirements, stabilised the discharge, and displayed suitable third-body properties able to tune up plasma reactions yielding a better methanol production rate than argon. Our findings reveal that plasma performance can be enhanced using a suitable reactant composition in combination with gas additives (in this case, N 2) to improve methanol synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]