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Methanol production methods

2009-02-10View Original

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Briefly describe the three methods—high-pressure, medium-pressure, and low-pressure—and their differences. The high-pressure process generally refers to the synthesis of methanol using a zinc-chromium catalyst at high temperatures and pressures of 300–400°C and 30 MPa. Since the first successful synthesis of methanol using this method in 1923, for almost 50 years, this approach has been used worldwide for methanol production, with only some differences in design; for example, the methods for heat transfer within the methanol synthesis tower fall into two main categories: the cold-tube continuous heat exchange type and the cold-jump multi-stage heat exchange type ; The flow pattern of the reaction gas can be axial and radial, or a mixed mode that includes both ; There are processes with by-product steam and those without by-product steam, etc. In recent years, our country has developed a technology for synthesizing methanol using copper-based catalysts at a pressure of 25–27 MPa; the methanol content in the outlet gas is around 4%, with a reaction temperature of 230–290°C. The ICl low-pressure methanol process is a methanol production method developed successfully by the British company ICl in 1966. This broke the monopoly of the high-pressure method for methanol synthesis, marking a major breakthrough in methanol production technology; it uses a copper-based catalyst of type 51-1 and operates at a synthesis pressure of 5 MPa. The synthesis tower used in the ICl process is of the hot-wall multi-stage quench type, with a simple structure; at the top of each catalyst layer, there is a diamond-shaped quench gas distributor that ensures even distribution of the quench gas into the catalyst layer, thereby regulating the temperature inside the tower. Other types of low-pressure synthesis towers include the tube bundle type by-product steam synthesis tower developed by Lurgi in West Germany, and the three-phase methanol synthesis system from the Electric Power Research Institute in the United States. In the 1970s, the Sichuan Vinylon Factory under China’s Light Industry Ministry introduced from the French company Speichim a low-pressure methanol production plant capable of producing 300 tons per day, using acetylene off-gases as raw material (based on British ICI patented technology). In the 1980s, the Second Fertilizer Plant of Qilu Petrochemical Company introduced a low-pressure methanol synthesis unit from the German company Lurgi. The medium-pressure method was further developed on the basis of research on the low-pressure method. Due to the low operating pressure in the low-pressure method, the equipment required is quite large in size, which hinders the scale-up of methanol production. Therefore, a medium-pressure methanol synthesis method with a pressure of around 10 MPa was developed. It can more effectively reduce plant construction costs and methanol production costs. For example, ICI has successfully developed the 51-2 type copper-based catalyst, whose chemical composition and activity are similar to those of the low-pressure synthesis catalyst 51-1; the only difference lies in the crystal structure of the catalyst, and its production cost is higher than that of the 51-1 type. Since this catalyst can maintain a long service life even at higher pressures, ICI was able to increase the synthesis pressure from 5 MPa to 10 MPa. The synthesis reactor used is of the four-stage quench type, just like in the low-pressure process, and its process flow and equipment are similar to those of the low-pressure method.

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