Page 30 - Industrial Plants

satisfying the routing of two-phase flow lines. Another • Methanol refining to grade AA [4].
important aspect is represented by the verification of
the existing foundations for the The conversion of the syngas to methanol can be
“The methanol produced newly added loads. represented as the sum of the following two reactions,
according to this scheme Constructability studies are resulting in a strongly exothermic process:
is equivalent to the carried out in parallel with the
avoidance of greenhouse engineering development to
gases emissions of optimize the procedures and the
500,000 tons per annum sequence of the construction
of carbon dioxide activities. The tie-ins into the The ideal composition of the syngas for methanol
existing piping are identified and production has a value of just over 2 of the following
categorized. A large number of ratio:
tie-ins are prioritized for the
execution in the next factory turnaround. This reduces
to the minimum the entity and the duration of the
connection works to be carried out during the
turnaround to be done before the Project Air start-up. The ratio is obtained by dividing the difference between
the moles of hydrogen and carbon dioxide by the sum
of the moles of carbon dioxide and monoxide and
Flexibility in the design therefore it describes the effect of carbon dioxide

for the greenfield sustainable which consumes the hydrogen via the reverse water-

gas shift reaction [5].
methanol plant The syngas produced by the upstream gasification
derives from the partial oxidation reactions of
The methanol production unit of Project Air is based on hydrocarbons that when applied to methane are:
a conventional process focused on the conversion of
the syngas to methanol, which includes the following
plant sections:
• Front-end syngas purification;
• Syngas compression;
• Converter and syngas circulation compressor;
• Hydrogen recovery; The partial oxidation reactions would be ideal for
• Crude methanol degassing and topping; methanol production since the resulting ratio is equal

Figure 4 – 3D model developed for the Methanol Area: from right to left purification, reaction, and
distillation sections

INDUSTRIAL PLANTS - May 2024
28