Methanol, production Lurgi

The M. W. Kellogg Company has successfully employed combined reforming for both H2 and methanol production. Lurgi has built at least two commercial methanol units based on their combined reforming process. Details of the Liirgi process are given in References 19 and 20. 

E. Supp and A. T. Weschler, "Conversion of Ammonia Plants to Methanol Production using Lurgi s Combined Reforming Technology", HTChE 1992 SpringMeeting, New Orleans. 

The processes listed in Table 9.4 that are reported to be used commercially to supply synthesis gas for methanol production are the Lurgi process, the... 

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. 

Four existing nonretrofitted processes solvent production from a primary oil, formalin production from methanol and air, oil refinery (atmospheric distillation), low-pressure Lurgi methanol production, are operating within one location and, therefore, the method... 

The following subsection briefly describes current industrial processes for methanol production with adiabatic multi-bed and isothermal single-bed reactor design. We will refer to the ICI (adiabatic multiple-bed reactor) and to the Lurgi process (isothermal single-bed reactor), which are important representatives of the different ways of producing methanol commercially nowadays. 

There are several commercial gas-solid catalysed reactions in which heat transfer plays a significant, if not dominant, role in limiting the reactor productivity, lowering the process selectivity and reducing the life of the catalyst. Among these include the oxidation of ethylene, benzene, C hydrocarbons and methanol, the ammoxidation of propylene, methanol synthesis (Lurgi), the hydrochlorination of methanol and steam reforming of natural gas and naphtha. 

A new BGL gasifier was installed at the Schwarze Pumpe complex in Germany to replace two of the Lurgi gasifiers currently in operation. This unit (85 MWe) gasifies MSW and bituminous coal for the production of electricity and methanol and was recently commissioned. 

The raw gas is purified in the Lurgi Rectisol process (cold methanol scrubbing) where various by-products (eg tar naphthas) and impurities (eg CO2 and H2S) are removed. 

The process has been demonstrated on a pilot scale by Lurgi and Statoil. Sufficient propylene has been produced to make polypropylene resin product by Borealis. This process appears to use an oxide doped ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst in fixed bed reactors. The oxide doping promotes the methanol conversion to olefins. All olefins, other than propylene, are recycled to extinction or purged as fuel gas or produced as naphtha. The flow sheet is illustrated in the Figure 11.8. 

A side stream of gas is bypassed around the shift unit to achieve the correct Hj CO ratio for the methanol synthesis process. Methanol synthesis itself operates at about 80 bar using the Lurgi Low Pressure Methanol Process followed by a distillation step to achieve the required product quality specification. 

In order to control heat removal and therefore the catalyst temperature, multiple-tube reactors (Lurgi process) or quench reactors with several catalyst layers and introduction of cold gas (ICI process) are mainly used. Catalyst performance in modern larger reactors is 1.3-1.5 kg of methanol per liter per hour, and large-scale plants have capacities of up to 10 fra, which reflects the position of methanol as a key product of Ci chemistry. 

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