Methanol from steam reforming, recent

Advantages and Recent Advances in Methanol from Steam Reforming. Since the ICI LP methanol plant was first introduced in 1967, the design has been modified to enhance energy recovery as it became more economic to do so, due to increasing energy costs. Figure 4 shows this trend. 

As discussed above in the reforming of hydrocarbon fuels, H2 can be produced from alcohol fuels by at least three major catalytic processes, namely steam reforming, partial oxidation and ATR or oxidative steam reforming. The chemistry, thermodynamics, and recent developments in catalysis of methanol and ethanol reforming with steam for H2 production will be discussed in this section. 

Recently, the high activity of a Cu-on-Zr02 catalyst in steam reforming of methanol has been interpreted as an interaction between copper and zirconia (133). A similar interaction might also contribute to the activity of the foregoing catalyst formed from the amorphous alloy. 

Methane is a stable molecule and can typically be activated only at HT, e.g., above 650 °C in the steam reforming process. Recently, however. Spinner and Mustain (2012, 2013) have reported that methane could conceivably be activated in a room temperature carbonate fuel cell based on an AEM, and a novel catalyst that could produce the carbonate ion from O2 and CO2 at the cathode (Figure 15.33). The carbonate ion diffuses through the AEM and partially oxidizes methane at a NiO—Z1O2 composite anode catalyst to produce oxygenates such as formaldehyde and methanol with syngas. Such LT methane activation, if feasible, could allow the selective production of platform chemicals, rather than syngas, directly from natural gas. 

The classical route of methane to methanol conversion involves oxidation of methane using various conditions. However, until recently, no satisfactory method had been devised to control the oxidation sufficiently to stop the reaction at methanol. Instead, oxidation tended to proceed beyond methanol to produce unwanted carbon dioxide. The conventional steam reforming process, which produces the intermediate syngas (a mixture of hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide, from which methanol can be synthesized), comprises 60—70% of the capital costs of methane to methanol conversion. Thus, a low temperature catalytic process that avoids syngas production would be highly advantageous from an economic perspective. 

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