80 000 MTA OF METHANOL PRODUCTION

METHANOX SDN.BHD

CHAPTER 2
FEASIBILITY STUDY AND LITERATURE SURVEY
2.1 Introductions
There are several types of methods in production of methanol and the types of
feedstock used that differentiate them. Some may use natural gas and some may use
coal.In recent years,the technology of methanol production has been developed.
Methanol has been widely used around the world,thus its market value depend on the
consumption. The higher the demand of the methanol, the higher the price of the
methanol in the world market. The cost estimation of methanol production also being
discussed in this section.
2.2 General Information
The oldest process for the industrial production of methanol is the dry
distillation of wood, but this method has no longer practice in industrial scale. This
because of this method is less economical and yet cannot produce lots of methanol
compare to more advance methanol production. Methanol is currently produced on an
industrial scale exclusively by catalytic conversion of synthesis gas. Processes are
classified according to the pressure used:

High-pressure process 25 30MPa

Medium-pressure process 10 25MPa
Low-pressure process 5 10MPa

Comparing of three processes which differ of pressure range,the process of

low pressure is the best among others. The main advantages of the low-pressure
process are lower investment and production costs, improved operational reliability,
and greater flexibility in the choice of plant size. Industrial methanol production can
be subdivided into three main steps:

Production of synthesis gas

Synthesis of methanol
Processing of crude methanol (Ulmann, 2003)

2.3 Process Technology

80 000 MTA OF METHANOL PRODUCTION

METHANOX SDN.BHD

There are some of plant designs in industries that aim to produces good quality
of methanol with low cost and less harmful. In industries,what is differing of plant
design one to another is mainly is the reactor. Many different reactors are available;
they may be either adiabatic (e.g., ICI) or quasi-isothermal. The ICI process accounts
for 60%, and the Lurgi process for 30% of worldwide methanol production.
2.3.1 Adiabatic Reactors
The ICI process (Fig. 4) uses an adiabatic reactor with a single catalyst
bed.The reaction is quenched by adding cold gas at several points. Thus, the
temperature profile along the axis of the reactor has a sawtooth shape. The whole
process includes three sections: natural gas reforming section, methanol synthesis
section,and distillation section. The original ICI process rejected substantial quantities
of heat energy into cooling water and air. In late 1974,ICI introduced the Reduced
Energy Concept. Several changes were made at that time and thereafter:

Replacement of LP stream reboilers in the distillation train by ones that were

heated by reformer process gas.

Inclusion of a boiler feedwater heating system in the reformer gas cooling
system and in the methanol synthesis loop, to recover energy which had been

discarded in the original 1967 design.

Enhanced heat recovers
The Improved Distillation design was added to the design package in

1977.Instead of the conventional two-column system, a four-column arrangement was

deployed, which produced chemical grade overhead and rejected water in the bottom
stream. The first of these columns is operated under pressure. This permits the
condensation of overhead vapour at a sufficiently high temperature for use as reboil
energy in the next column, which operates at near atmospheric pressure. The pressure
column produces slightly impure methanol, rejects water that is virtually methanol
free and removes most of the higher alcohols as a side stream. The atmospheric
pressure column does the final refining. The reduction in energy is obtained through
the use of lower reflux ratios. Figure below shows the ICI process flow diagram
(Ullman, 2003)

80 000 MTA OF METHANOL PRODUCTION

METHANOX SDN.BHD

FIGURE 2.3.2: ICI process flow diagram

2.3.3 Quasi-Isothermal Reactors;
Lurgi process is an advanced technology for converting natural gas to
methanol at low cost in large quantities. The main targets of this process are:

Oxygen-blown natural gas reforming, either combination with steam

reforming or as pure auto thermal reforming

Two- step methanol synthesis in water and gas cooled reactors operating

along the optimum reaction route

Adjustments of syngas composition by hydrogen recycle.
Conventional steam reforming is economically applied in small or medium

sized methanol plants.Oxygen-blown natural gas reforming, with steam reforming or

pure auto thermal reforming, is being considered to the best choice technology for
large syngas. Pure autohermal reforming can be applied for syngas production
whereby light natural gas is available as feedstock to process. Figure below shows the
block diagram of how Lurgi process operates.

80 000 MTA OF METHANOL PRODUCTION

METHANOX SDN.BHD

FIGURE 2.3.4: Methanol production using Lurgi combined reforming

Any heavy natural gases and oil associated gases sent to combined refining
process to synthesis gas for methanol plants. The advantage of combined reforming
process over similar process alternative is the patented feedgas bypass of the steam
reformer. Less than half feedgas of most natural gases are streamed to steam reformer,
the overall process steam requirements also being roughly halved compared with
other process, which use an autothermal reformer downstream of the steam reformer
without such bypass. The lower process steam consumption translates into reduced
energy requirement and lower investment.

80 000 MTA OF METHANOL PRODUCTION

METHANOX SDN.BHD

FIGURE 2.3.5: Lurgi process flow diagram

80 000 MTA OF METHANOL PRODUCTION

METHANOX SDN.BHD

2.4 Market Data

Methanol can be considered as the 2 nd largest in term of quantity produced
from the synthetic gas after ammonia. Ullmans Encyclopaedia of Industrial
Chemistry has stated that at the beginning of 1988, 19 x 10 8 tonne was produced
worldwide. Figure 2.4.1 below shows the production curve from 1965 to 1995.It
clearly shows that the production of methanol produced has been increased as the year
increased. As the data contributed by the Methanol Market Service Asia (MMSA),in
year 2013; methanol is demanded by Asian country such as China due to its capability
as alternative fuels at 47.9%..It is then followed by anothers as seen in Figure 2.4.1.

FIGURE 2.4.1:The methanol production from year 1965 to 1995

80 000 MTA OF METHANOL PRODUCTION

METHANOX SDN.BHD

FIGURE 2.4.2:The pie chart of demand of methanol by region in 2013 (-000metric tons)
Referring to the George A.Olah,Alain Goeppert,G.K.Surya Prakash,the price
of methanol has shows that the price of methanol of market price of the methanol for
several years. Figure 3 shows the trend market price for methanol. Based on the
graph, since 1975,the average price of methanol has been around $175 to 200 per
tonne. And until 2005,its prices fluctuated around $100 400 per tonne. This
fluctuation happened due to the supply and the demand. If looked at year 19941995,there is a hiking price due to an increase in demand for major methanol
derivatives such as MTBE,formaldehyde and acetic acid, coupled with production
problems at methanol plants. After that year, the price goes down due to the
competition and increased capacity and also effect of using MTBE as a gasoline
additive. If year 2008 the price hiking again is due to the result of plants shutting
down for scheduled maintenance or repairs, although there is increasing demands
from global needs. In late 2010s,the price of methanol decreased due to slow-down
world economic situation. Construction of extremely mega-methanol plants with very
low production cost at the place where rich in natural gases such as in Middle East
allow the price of methanol to remain low as long as there is sufficient natural gas
reserves are available.

80 000 MTA OF METHANOL PRODUCTION

METHANOX SDN.BHD

FIGURE 2.4.3:The trend market price for methanol

2.5 Cost Estimation
In some places, coal mines are used to produces methanol by using methane
gas from the coal seams. Most coal mines vent this methane to the atmosphere, which
not only represents the loss of a valuable fuel source,but also contributes to global
warming, as methane is a potent greenhouse gas.However,a growing number of mines
in many parts of the world recover the drained methane for sale to pipelines,or for
heat or electricity generation. To date, no methanol producers have used coal bed
methane, but it is a potential alternative feedstock in areas that mine gassy coal. Coal
mines do not produce enough methane to fuel large methanol plants, but one or more
very gassy mines typically produce enough methane to fuel a small (25-30 million
gallons/year) methanol plant.Alternatively,smaller (3-5 million gallons/year) mobile
methanol plants currently used at offshore oil rigs may be a potential option for use at
coal mines.
In 1997,methanol prices are around $US 0.55-0.70/gallon. Methanol prices
can be volatile. In small plants,it can produce up to 25-30 million gallons (95-114
million litres) per year.Usually,the number of methane require for small plants to
operate range from 7-8 million ft3 (200-226 thousand m3) per day.The costs start-up
for a small plant to produce methanol is about $US 1.33 million per million gallons of
annual plant capacity ($US 40 million for a 30 million gallon/yr plant).

80 000 MTA OF METHANOL PRODUCTION

METHANOX SDN.BHD

Raw Materials
Natural Gas

RM/Tonne
265.45

Water
(steam,
Utilities

cooling,

Reactor

Equipment

etc) (5% PCE)

Electricity (10% RM63,177.39/mont
PCE)

Main

RM31,588.70/mont

Heat Exchanger
Distillation
Column

h
RM6,249.00/unit

(x2 units)
RM36,869.10/unit
(x6 units)
RM93,735.00/unit
(x2 units)

Table 2.5: Calculated values for raw material and product

Molecular weight
Quantity mole/ year
Quantity kg/ year
Current price
Sell price/ year

NATURAL GAS
19kg/kmole
21.01x10^6 kmole/year
669.08x106 kg/year
RM 265.45/ton
RM 1.77x107

METHANOL
32kg/kmole
2500 kmole/year
8.0x107 kg/year
RM1393.95/ton
RM 1.11x108