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Minor technical upgrades to the distillation unit at Zhongyuan Dahuahua’s methanol plant help reduce consumption. Author/Source: Zhongyuan Dahuahua. Date: 2022-02-17. Clicks: 12. I remember when I first arrived at the methanol plant, during inspections I would notice that the steam pipelines in unit 10, model 10F002, were shaking. It was later found that this was caused by water hammer resulting from the use of steam pipelines that were too large for that application. Water hammer is just the surface issue; if the steam pipeline is chosen to be too large, the diameters of the components such as doors, flanges, elbows, and fittings connected to the pipeline also need to be increased, which leads to higher costs for the required equipment. During the operation of the plant, in order to prevent water hammer from threatening the safety of the equipment, it is necessary to increase the steam volume in the methanol pre-purification tower; this results in steam waste and increases production costs. Technicians at the methanol plant have conducted research and analysis on this issue, and it has been found that optimizing the steam piping of the pre-distillation tower reboiler can help reduce the consumption of methanol vapor. During the major maintenance shutdown of methanol production in October 2021, replacing the steam pipeline of the pre-distillation column reboiler became an important task; it was urgent to reduce the pipe diameter and lower consumption. After reducing the diameter of the steam pipes, the steam consumption in the distillation unit was significantly lowered without affecting product quality. Compared to before the shutdown last year, at the same load and with a feed rate of 50 T of crude methanol, the steam consumption in the pre-distillation tower decreased by about 1.5 tons per hour. Just this alone saves over 1 million yuan in steam costs each year. The steam consumption per ton of methanol dropped from 1.25 to around 1.15, thus achieving the goal of reducing steam consumption at lower loads. It’s not just an economic change; production has also become safer. A small amount of steam added will no longer cause vibrations in the steam pipelines, nor will it lead to fluctuations in the pressure of the pre-distillation tower. Small investment, big returns: this technological upgrade for distillation has delivered an excellent result. In 2022, all employees involved in methanol production will surely overcome various challenges in the manufacturing process, strive to reduce energy consumption and improve product quality, and ensure success in addressing the issues that cause losses.