ICI low pressure methanol process

LCM [Leading Concept for Methanol] A process for making methanol, combining the ICI Low Pressure Methanol process with the steam reforming section of the LCA ammonia process. Developed by ICI in 1990 and piloted in Melbourne, Australia, from 1994. Envisaged for floating factories in off-shore gas fields. 

Naphtha was the initial feedstock for the ICI low pressure methanol process because it was available to ICI at the time they developed the process. However, it is also the most ideal feedstock from a stoichiometric viewpoint as evidenced by the following reaction. 

Schiller A predecessor of the ICI Low Pressure Methanol process, developed by IG Farben. 

Anonymous, The ICI Low Pressure Methanol Process, Agricultural Division, Imperial Chemical Industries, Bilingham, England, No date. 

The GTM plant employs the ICI low-pressure Methanol Process sub-licensed from Davy McKee, and incorporates two methanol trains each capable of producing 2200 tonnes per day of methanol. 

Methanol is manufactured from syn. gas by passing the latter at 230-270°C/50-100atm over a copper oxide catalyst (CuO.ZnO or CuO.ZnO.Al Oj) (ICI Low Pressure Methanol process). (The copper oxide is reduced to metal.)... 

ICI Low Pressure Methanol A process for making methanol from methane and steam. The methanol is first converted to syngas by steam reforming at a relatively low pressure. The syngas is then converted to methanol over a copper-based catalyst ... 

The processing area of the plant consists of three process units two methanol plants and the methanol to gasoline (MTG) conversion plant. The methanol units convert natural gas from the Maui Platform to crude methanol using the ICI low pressure synthesis process. Each methanol plant can produce 2200 tonnes of methanol per day. The methanol is fed directly to the MTG unit where it is catalytically converted to gasoline and small amounts of LPG. 

The reactor configuration most prevalent for methanol synthesis from syngas is the gas-phase fixed-bed reactor. It is a two-phase system in which the reacting gas flows through a bed of catalyst particles. ICI introduced its low pressure methanol process in low tonnage plants. This process typically operates at temperatures of 220-28CTC and pressures of 5—10 MPa. The exothermic nature of the methanol synthesis reaction makes the temperature control difficult. The reactor operates adiabatically and the temperature rise... 

Figure 3.14 A schematic of the ICI Katalco low pressure methanol process. Source [14,134],...

A block flow diagram for production of fuel grade methanol from biomass is depicted in Figure I. The gasification step is based upon the Purox process and is followed by shift conversion and gas purification steps. The clean gas, which is shifted to a H2/CO ratio of approximately 2/1, is converted to methanol in the ICI low-pressure methanol synthesis process. The process yields approximately 98% pure methanol with the remaining 2% consisting of water and some higher carbon number alcohols. 

Tests with catalysts containing copper were carried out by Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., England, from about 1958 to 1962 and eventually a practical copper catalyst for methanol synthesis and the first Low-pressure Methanol Processes were brought onto the market. In the process developed by ICI the quench reactor, in which the reaction heat is removed by quenching with cold gases and which is known from high-pressure methanol synthesis, is used. 

The two low-pressure methanol processes to which currently more than 90% of the world methanol production is manufactured, the Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd. (ICI) one and the LURGI one, differ considerably in the reactor section. 

ICI Low-Pressure Methanol A process for making methanol from methane and steam. The methanol is... 

Figure 5-5. The ICI low-pressure process for producing methanol " (1) desulfurization, (2) saturator (for producing process steam), (3) synthesis loop circulator, (4) reactor, (5) heat exchanger and separator, (6) column for light ends recovery, (7) column for water removal.

Two versions of the MTG process, one using a fixed bed, the other a fluid bed, have been developed. The fixed-bed process was selected for installation in the New Zealand gas-to-gasoline (GTG) complex, situated on the North Island between the villages of Waitara and Motonui on the Tasman seacoast (60). A simplified block flow diagram of the complex is shown in Figure 6 (61). The plant processes over 3.7 x 106 m3/d(130 x 106 SCF/d) of gas from the offshore Maui field supplemented by gas from the Kapuni field, first to methanol, and thence to 2.3 x 103 m3/d (14,500 bbl/d) of gasoline. Methanol feed to the MTG section is synthesized using the ICI low pressure process (62) in two trains, each with a capacity of 2200 t/d. 

LPM [Low-Pressure Methanol] A process for making methanol, invented by ICI in the 1960s. A copper catalyst permitted operation at low pressures. By 2004, it was used to make more than 50% of the methanol produced in the world. Now offered by Johnson Matthey. 

Low-pressure methanol synthesis catalyst is a well-proven product that is commercially available from a number of reputable suppliers, including BASF, ICI, United Catalysts/Siid-Chemie, and Haldor-Topsoe. In the past, methanol synthesis catalyst was available from these suppliers as part of a process licensed to the end user, althou today this practice is no longer universally applied. 

ICI introduced the low-pressure methanol proeess with a queneh reaetor system. The ICI process is the most widely used, and therefore there are many quench reactors in methanol serviee. Other reaetor systems have been developed over the years to improve upon the thermodynamics of the system, including pseudoisothermal reactors as used by Liir and Linde and intercooled reaetors as used by Topsoe and Kellogg. These reactors are described in Section 3.2.5. 

Fig. 22.3. Manufacture Of chemical or fuel-grade methanol from hydrocarbon feedstocks using ICI low-pressure process. (Hydrocarbon Processing, p. 144, Nov. 1986. Copyright 1985 by Guff Publishing Company and ussa by parmission of the copyright owner.)...

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