Methanol, production capacity

Table 2. Estimated World Methanol Annual Nameplate Production Capacity, 1993...

The use of zeolites can also be very helpful in removing a reaction product that unfavourably influences the yield of the desired product. Thus, in the manufacture of antibiotic cefoxitin, the amide acylation results in the generation of HCI, which can be removed by the addition of molecular sieve 3 A or 4 A, which has a large capacity for HCI (Weinstock, 1986). Other examples are reactions in which products like methanol or water retard the rate and prevent the reaction to reach the desired degree of completion. Molecular sieves capture methanol or water very well. 

In 2009, worldwide production of methanol was around 40 million metric tons. Although this amount represents only 0.01% of the worldwide gasoline production, it is nearly equivalent to the total biodiesel and bioethanol production [11], From this number, it is clear that a large-scale replacement of gasoline by methanol as fuel would require an enormous increase of worldwide methanol synthesis capacities. Today, chemical intermediates dominate methanol consumption. Formaldehyde a platform molecule for the synthesis of polymer resins - is responsible for nearly half of the total demand. Acetic acid, MTBE, and methyl methacrylate - a monomer -constitute another 25% [7, 12]. Direct fuel and additive usage accounts for 15% of demand but is expected to rise. 

Methanol is a major bulk chemical. In 1989 the production capacity exceeded 21xl06 ton/y. 

One of your customers is a manufacturer of methanol. Her firm has several plants, with a huge production capacity. A methanol plant converts methane and water into methanol in two steps. In the first reformer reactor methane is converted into carbon monoxide and hydrogen (Figure 17-2). In the second synthesis reactor the carbon monoxide and part of... 

The Wacker process reached a maximum production capacity of 2.6 Mt/a worldwide in the mid 1970 s. The cause of the decline in the following years (1.8 Mt/a in 2003) was the increase in the manufacture of acetic acid (the most important product made from acetaldehyde) by the carbonylation of methanol. In future new processes for chemicals, such as acetic anhydride and alkylamines (which were also made from acetaldehyde) will probably further decrease its importance. With the growing use of syngas as feedstock, the one-step... 

Methanol is very important both as a produet and as a feedstock in chemical industry the total world capacity is currently over 30 Mt/a and is rising at about 3% p.a. Syngas is now the only realistic feedstock for making methanol. Major plants to make it from very cheap raw materials have been built in Trinidad, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere these use methane from oil wells, which was previously flared to waste, but can easily be converted into syngas. Such methanol plants use what is termed stranded gas which is natural gas in a remote area where it cannot be economically used for any other purpose. Very large mega-scale methanol plants > 1.5 Mt/a are now built. For example in Trinidad, which is now the world s largest exporter of methanol, with a total production capacity of 6.5 Mt/a. 

Table 1.25 gives the average commercial spedficadons of diemical grade methanol. Table 1.26 lists the applications of methanol in Western Europe, the United States, Japan and the world in 1984. as well as the production, capacities and consumption for these geographic areas. Capacities are also given for 1986. ... 

Successful examples of selective oxidation catalysis in industry include the conversions of ethylene to ethylene oxide and of methanol to formaldehyde, both on silver catalysts. Ethylene oxide, with an annual worldwide production capacity over 11 million tons, is an important intermediate for the production of glycols (antifreeze agents), ethoxylates (additives in washing powder), cosmetics, polyester fibers, and pharmaceuticals. The partial oxidation of ethylene to ethylene oxide is carried out on silver metal particles supported on o -Al203 or SiC and promoted by alkaline earth or alkali metals. Trace amounts of ethylene dichloride are also fed continuously into the reactor to suppress deep oxidation. Selectivities of about 75-85% are typical nowadays for this process. Formaldehyde, with a production capacity of... 

The industrial capacity for worldwide production of methanol in 1994 was 2.42 x 10 metric tons per year3 about 85% of which was used as a starting material in the production of other chemicals or as a solvent. Methanol is used as a raw material in the manufacture of formaldehyde. acetic acid, methyl /erf-butyl ether (MTBE), dimethyl terephthalate, methyl chloride, methyl amines, and many other chemicals. It can also be used as a clean-burning fuel. 

A small scale test plant with a methanol production capacity of 50 kg/day has been designed and constructed in order to examine the performance of a Cu/ZnO-based multicomponent catalyst under practical reaction conditions. The production rate of methanol over the multicomponent catalyst was around 600 g/l-cat-h under the reaction conditions of 523 K, 5 MPa, and SV=10,000h The purity of methanol produced was 99.9%. 

The future of the commercial acetaldehyde processes mainly depends on the availability of cheap ethylene. Acetaldehyde has been replaced as a precursor for 2-ethylhexanol ( aldol route ) or acetic acid (via oxidation cf. Sections 2.1.2.1 and 2.4.4). New processes for the manufacture of acetic acid are the Monsanto process (carbonylation of methanol, cf. Section 2.1.2.1), the Showa Denko one-step gas-phase oxidation of ethylene with a Pd-heteropolyacid catalyst [75, 76], and Wacker butene oxidation [77]. Other outlets for acetaldehyde such as pentaerythritol and pyridines cannot fill the large world production capacities. Only the present low price of ethylene keeps the Wacker process still attractive. 

With the permission of the author [3], we borrow here data (Table 1) which indicates the production capacity of the major industrial processes using oxygen for functionalizing hydrocarbons. The production of acetic acid should be added to the list, although 60% of its 6.1 million t/year total world capacity (to reach 67% in the next future) is due to the Monsanto process (methanol carbonylation) [4]. Only the rest (2.4 million t/year) is produced by oxidation of butane or other alkanes or acetaldehyde or, for a small proportion, hy the Showa Denko process (oxidation of ethylene). 

The global demand for methanol has increased about 8%/yr from 1991 to 1995. The global production capacity of methanol has expanded by about 5.1 million metric tons, or 23% in the same time period. Leading the growth is increased methanol demand for MTBE and formaldehyde production. The world methanol supply/demand balance is shown in Table 3.19. 

Acetic Acid Demand. The production capacity for acetic acid by each major process is illustrated in Table 4 [10]. Table 4 shows that methanol carbonylation has nearly replaced oxidation processes for acetic acid production in the United States. Carbonylation accounted for less than 20% of total capacity in 1978 and more than 75% in 1994. The same trend has occurred outside of the United States. In 1978, carbonylation was less than 10% of worldwide capacity and today amounts to about 50%. 

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