Questions regarding the crude methanol filter
Thread Content
The crude methanol filter in our plant has been removed; will this have an impact on distillation? Are there any symptoms?
I wonder what type of distillation tower you have? Screen plate or packing?
It depends on your synthesis level; if impurities are present, they have a significant impact on distillation, resulting in poor product quality!
It will mainly still carry some solid impurities, such as paraffin and the like! It’s not just a problem that affects the quality of your products; in the end, it will clog your distillation pipes as well as various heat exchange devices
Mainly, it brings some solid impurities that can cause problems in production, such as blockages in valves, etc. As for product quality, it depends on what type of tower you use
We encountered the same problem as mentioned by the poster; it was discontinued back in 2007. When ordering custom equipment, we didn’t even purchase it… The base remained on the ground. In the winters of Heilongjiang Province, with just those four small components in place, they still froze over. There was no other choice but to discontinue it.
The filter removes mainly waxy substances that tend to condense. The filtering effect of the filter becomes more noticeable when the temperature drops, as lower temperatures cause the temperature of crude methanol to decrease as well, leading to the condensation of some of these waxy substances, which are then filtered out by the filter. If these waxy substances reach the bottom of the tower, a small portion of them may experience chain breaks, resulting in the formation of small organic impurities that can affect the quality of methanol. During transportation, pure methanol may adhere to the pipe walls, and over time this can increase the resistance to flow. If a methanol synthesis system is being used for the first time, it is essential to keep a filter in place to remove any impurities originating from the synthesis equipment and pipes.
Those that are subject to conditional retention should be retained, as this prevents synthetic solid impurities from transferring to the distillation stage and affecting it.
The crude methanol filter can prevent most paraffin from entering the distillation system; it only needs to be cleaned regularly, and it’s best not to remove it!
It is recommended to install filters, two of them in parallel, so that they can switch over to clean each other
Some designs that are used in plants with a capacity of 100,000 tons do not include this feature, and it has little impact on the purity of the product. The system has been in use for over two years now, and it’s working well; however, if it has already been installed, it’s still advisable to keep using it. Besides, there are also filters in front of each pump used in distillation
Our plant uses three-column distillation, with corrugated plates and floating valves in the composite columns
It is best not to cancel it. Whether it is a packed tower or a floating valve tower, if the distillation column gets dirty, it will block the channels, leading to flow deviations and affecting the efficiency of distillation, which in turn impacts the quality of methanol.
Synthetic filters are primarily used to remove solid impurities, especially paraffin. If your synthetic catalyst is of good quality and causes few side reactions, the impact may not be severe in the initial stages; however, the pumps in your distillation system will be affected, particularly the crude methanol pump and the recovery pump. Over time, this can cause blockages in the pipes. It will be difficult to clean up at that time
May I ask, for something like a distillation filter, which type of filter is better to purchase?