What to do if methanol is leaking?
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We use the Luzzi process; recently, the amount of methanol added has increased, mainly due to an increase in the amount of methanol carried away in the exhaust gases Does that expert have a way to reduce methanol loss?
1. Do you have an exhaust gas scrubber? If so, the load on the scrubbing water and the reboiler as well as the flow rate of the water separation tower can be increased appropriately. 2. While ensuring sufficient cooling capacity, the amount of nitrogen used for gas lift can be appropriately reduced ； Or increase the operating pressure a bit. 3. Increase the reflux flow or temperature at the top of the exhaust tower.
What was said upstairs is very accurate. Check out what the reason is, and try the solutions suggested upstairs to see how it goes If all these methods have been tried and still don’t work, I suspect there might be a problem with the demisters at the top of the gas lift tower and the exhaust gas scrubber tower!
We faced this issue before, but it has been resolved now; the level is kept at 150 PPM. The demister at the exhaust outlet is crucial. After removing a few trays from the exhaust section, there was a slight improvement, but once the demister was modified, the results were completely different. The demister we use is a Lurgi patent. You can also start by looking at this aspect. Furthermore, there is no exhaust gas scrubber after the exhaust gas outlet; instead, while addressing this issue by upgrading the demister, a separator was added at the exhaust gas outlet. As a result, the separator became almost useless, since the demister completely solved the problem of liquid contamination in the exhaust gases.
It’s not necessarily that the methanol level in the exhaust gases is high! It is necessary to determine whether the increase in methanol content is due to exhaust gases, acidic gases, or the wastewater from the methanol-water separation tower If the load on the reactor tower and the water separation tower remains stable, the key is to control the temperature properly. If there are no issues with those aspects, then it means the methanol content in the exhaust gas is too high; in that case, simply follow the procedures mentioned on the second floor
Thank you all, experts. We are also planning to purchase Luchi’s defoamer