Design and analysis of a simulated methanol production plant

Abstract

The demand for cleaner and alternative energy is growing rapidly leading to interest in methanol production. Methanol is a high value chemical that serves as an intermediate for producing common chemicals, use as a fuel additive, and as a method of energy storage. This work is about a design of a methanol plant with a production capacity of 5000 metric tonnes per day (MTPD). The design of the plant is also limited by the quality of methanol produced - Grade AA (99.85% methanol minimum, 0.1% water maximum), and to produce no more than 0.54 tonne CO2 emissions per tonne methanol produced. The heart of the design is to model the low pressure methanol technologies and to identify the advantages of different reactor types. In terms of economics, the growth in the demand for methanol has been seen to have a steady increase over the past few years. Based on the initial estimates for the plant costs, the capital required to build the plant is between 1-1.1 billion USD. Current market prices for a 5000 MTD plant would make a yearly gross income of approximately 50-100 million.