China’s largest methanol-to-hydrogen plant comes online

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China’s Largest Methanol-to-Hydrogen Plant Put into Operation Author/Source: China Chemical Industry News Date: July 19, 2018 Clicks: 55 On July 17, reporters learned from Shanghai Huaxi Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. that China’s largest methanol-to-hydrogen plant – the 60,000 Nm3/h methanol-to-hydrogen plant owned by Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd. – was officially put into operation recently, with a successful start-up on the first attempt. After 72 hours of operational testing, the unit produced 99.9% pure hydrogen, with a methanol consumption of 0.5 kg per Nm3 of hydrogen, meeting the design specifications. This facility is the largest methanol-to-hydrogen plant in China to be put into operation to date, following the Hubei Jin’ao 40,000 Nm3/h methanol-to-hydrogen plant designed by Shanghai Huaxi Chemical Company. The device utilizes Huaxi Chemical’s advanced methanol-to-hydrogen technology, PSA technology, catalysts, as well as the adsorbents and programmable valves used in the PSA section; Anhui Huadong Chemical Pharmaceutical Engineering Co., Ltd. is responsible for the detailed design. According to Ji Ziyi, general manager of Huaxi Chemical, this facility uses methanol and deionized water as raw materials. The heat provided by a heat transfer oil furnace is used to vaporize the methanol, which then undergoes a cracking reaction in the presence of a catalyst to produce shift gas. This shift gas is further processed through PSA, where the selective adsorption properties of the adsorbent are utilized to remove impurities from the gas – primarily CO and CO2 – thereby producing hydrogen with a purity of over 99.9%. The calibration results after the device started operating stably showed that, compared with similar domestic devices, it has lower energy consumption and less methanol usage, resulting in significant energy savings and economic benefits.