I have a question regarding the methanol odor in methanol-to-hydrogen production plants
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Our system is capable of producing hydrogen from methanol at a rate of 60,000 m3/h, using a process flow that involves methanol cracking followed by VPSA and PSA. Are there any manufacturers that use this dry methanol hydrogen production method? I’m just wondering if VPSA generates a strong methanol odor when exposed to air; the odor here is quite strong.
It’s no longer allowed to release anything into the atmosphere. Don’t the environmental protection authorities come to inspect there? Here, the acetic acid production plants emit a strong odor, but now that’s also not allowed anymore.
Unorganized emissions are no longer allowed, and now chemical plants are required to ensure that there are no odors throughout the entire facility
Check the gas connection line! There must be some obstruction or blockage somewhere! Otherwise, it won’t have much flavor! Also, may I ask which company designed your device? 60,000 square meters should belong to West China, right? Check again the acidic water discharge points and the deacidification discharge points of the heat exchangers; if it’s the smell from these two locations, finding a way to address it will lead to a significant improvement! !
Designed by Shanghai Huaxi, right? There shouldn’t be any odor when it’s operating normally
This post was last edited by bookjude on 2020-1-7 at 08:51. The strong odor is mainly due to methanol that remained unreacted during the gas generation stage at the front end; it could not be completely removed in the water scrubber, so it ended up in the PSA unit at the back end along with the converted gas. It is then released after adsorption and desorption. It is recommended to measure the methanol content in the conversion gas before it enters the PSA unit; if this level is too high, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate the issue at the upstream stage and improve the process.
It was designed by Shanghai Huaxi, but the methanol content in the wash tower is not very high; during normal operation it ranges between 1-3%, which meets the design specifications. Then why does the methanol smell so strong in the air released by the VPSA unit?
A low methanol concentration in the wash tower does not necessarily mean it is normal; it could be due to poor washing efficiency, which leads to severe carryover of methanol downstream. The function of the water scrubber is to use water as a medium to absorb the residual methanol in the converted gas.
So how can we solve the problem of poor washing efficiency in the water washing tower?
How was the issue resolved by the original poster? Here, we have a unit with a capacity of 100 m3; there is no CO in the product gas for 6 or 7 days in a row, but suddenly levels of 0.03% or 0.2% appear, which exceeds the allowed limits for subsequent reactions. It’s really worrying :(