Methanol Plant Capacity

Where we have come from and where are we

going?

Julian Morris
Licensing Manager
Turning science into customer solutions

We know how to
design processes
Scale up complex
manufacturing

We know We know how

chemistry and to apply our
materials science
Provision of New and next
customised generation products,
solutions formulation and
industrial process
optimisation

Using world class science and technology to solve complex problems for our customers

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ICI (now JM) – Low Pressure Methanol (LPM)

Global Syngas Technologies Conference 2018

Capacity expansion
NOW

Total added methanol capacity per year

(‘000 Metric Tonnes per day)

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Selected Timeline
1966 1971 1982 2004 2010 2014 2018

ICI, UK Celanese Celanese Methanex Shenhua Kaveh

300 mtpd Texas, Edmonton, Atlas, Trinidad Baotou, Methanol, Iran
USA Canada 5000 mtpd China 7000 mtpd
1500 mtpd 2000 mtpd 5500 mtpd
MHTL M5, China Coal
Trinidad Shaanxi Yulin
5400 mtpd 6600 mtpd
5
JM is the Methanol Market Leader

JM offer
• World leading technology licensing and full Natural Gas Chemical
range of catalysts Reforming Uses

• 95 JM methanol licenses in total

Coke / C2H2
with 25 JM licenses in the last 10 years Off Gas
Methanol Fuels M15

• >30% of world’s methanol capacity uses

JM technology and catalysts Gasified Coal Olefins MTO

Primary Market drivers

• Coal to chemicals in China

• Shale gas based opportunities in the US

Global Syngas Technologies Conference 2018

Alternative Reforming JM Options

a)
Reformer

d)
ATR

b) Reformer

ATR

ATR
GHR
e)
c) Reformer

ATR

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Performance Comparison

SMR SMR+ SMR+ATR GHR+ATR GHR+ATR ATR Only

CO2 (1) (2) (3)

Nat Gas Efficiency GJ/tMeOH 32.3 31.0 29.7 29.3 25.7 31.4

Raw Water t/100tMeOH 228 178 239 120 115 299

Import Electricity kWh/tMeOH 20.3 19.9 0 0 422 16

Import CO2 t/tMeOH 0 0.31 0 0 0 0

ISBL CO2 Emissions t/tMeOH 0.432 0.669 0.286 0.264 0.073 0.38

(1) Power generated ISBL

(2) Imported Power From Grid
(3) Using PSA to reject excess carbon
Global Syngas Technologies Conference 2018
Reaching for the Sky – Are There limits to the Size of Methanol Units?

How big can you go?

..probably larger than you first thought

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Methanol Plant design limits Syngas Generation
Syngas
Compression
Methanol
Loop
Product
Distillation
Syngas Generation (basis 864 tube reformer)

• SMR + CO2 addition

• Single plant up to 6000 mtpd.
• SMR + ATR (CR)
• Single plant up to 13,500 mptd
• Parallel Reforming
• Single plant up to 32,000 mptd
• Parallel ATR plants
• Up to 32,100 mptd with multiple parallel ATR trains

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 Methanol Plant design limits Syngas Generation
Syngas
Compression
Methanol
Loop
Product
Distillation

continued
Syngas Compression Methanol Loop Product Distillation
• For SMR only, limit is ~10,000 mtpd, 2
• Reactor size is limited by transportation • Typical fabricated diameter = 6m
stages, 2 turbines
or crane limits. Cranes can lift up to
• ‘3’-column limit ~7000 mtpd
• For SMR+ATR, limit is ~20,000 mtpd, 1 1500 mt BUT are very expensive to hire
stage, 2 turbines • Typical on site fabrication = 10m
• Above ~5000 mtpd scale, parallel heat
exchanger networks are required which • ‘3’-column limit ~17,000 mtpd
limit economies of scale

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Now
• Carbon recycling international, Iceland
• Hydrogen from renewable electricity
• Recovered carbon dioxide

• NW Innovation Works, USA

• Plan to use GHR technology on World-scale plants importing renewable energy

• Kaveh, Iran
• 7,000MTPD Plant in operation (but not at full capacity?)

Global Syngas Technologies Conference 2018

The future
• 10,000MTPD
• Most designs and licensors can scale.
• New technologies such as CATACEL SSR (by JM) may enable further capacity
advances from a single steam reformer
• Advances in reactor and catalyst technology with see further incremental gains in
capacity versus equipment size.

• LPM process continues to dominate

• Direct methane to methanol route of interest
• No processes outside the laboratory yet

• Renewable Energy and Power to Methanol Projects

• The use of Methanol as an energy vector to store renewable energy may see small
scale plants with methanol used as the store for stranded renewable energy.

Global Syngas Technologies Conference 2018

Any questions?

Global Syngas Technologies Conference 2018 Nitrogen & Syngas 2018