Production of Methanol

1.0 BATCH VS CONTINUOUS

1.1 Introduction
In this revolution of technologies, many of the industry has relied on a large-scale
continuous process. At the outset, the production facilities for new products used to be a
batch process produced on a larger scale because of reduced investment costs. As the
economy of scale has become the main factor, larger production is needed for processing in
the industry. In general, emphasised on developing and designing continuous processes for
the mass production of goods. However, speciality products and product diversification, with
more emphasis on customer requirements and their need for food security and high quality, as
well as traceability requirements, mean that equal focus has shifted to batch processes.
Almost half of today’s processes in the food industry are batch processes.
1.2 Batch process
Industrial processes can be classified based on the process output as batch processes
and continuous process refers. A batch process is to a process that consists of a sequence of
one or more steps that should be performed in a defined order. A finite quantity of the
product is produced at the end of the sequence, which is repeated in order to produce another
product batch. Batch is a process that results in the production of limited quantities of
material through subjecting quantities of raw materials to a set of processing activities over a
significant period with the use of one or more pieces of equipment. Processing of successive
batches must wait until the completion of the current batch. Figure 1 shows the semi-batch of
methanol production.

1.1.1 Process description batch process

The catalyst and solvent were firstly loaded in the reactor. The air inside was purged
by the reactant gas CO/CO2/H2/Ar with ratio 32/5/60/3, then the reactor pressure was raised
to 30 bar, and the reaction took place at the set temperature for 2 h. The stirring speed was
fixed at 1260 rpm and carefully checked to prevent the diffusion-controlled regime. The total
pressure was calculated to 55 bar at the reaction temperature of 160 °C, including 10 bar of
solvent vapour pressure when ethanol was used. A continuous methanol synthesis was
conducted using a flow-type semi-batch reactor. The high-pressure gas flow controller and
pressure regulator were set upstream and downstream of the reactor. The Cooler is used to
trap liquid product and water cooler used to prevent the possible escaping of solvent from the
reactor was set at the exit of the reactor. The catalyst and alcohol (purity > 99.5%) were
poured into the reactor, and then the reactor was closed. After that, the temperature of water
cooler was set at 0 °C, and the reactor was purged by reactant gas, CO/CO2/H2/Ar with a
ratio of 32/5/60/3 (Ar was used as an internal standard). The pressure was raised to 50 bar
followed by raising the temperature to 160 °C within 20 min at the constant stirring speed
(1260 rpm).
1.1.2 Advantages and disadvantages batch process
Advantages Disadvantages
It is cheaper to produce a whole batch There is a period for which the machinery is
instead of single machines can be used more being changed, and this causes the
effectively. productivity to stop completely, which
could cause the workers to sit idle;
basically, the work stops.
It is lower cost, fewer workers because High storage costs
going to use machines.
It is more accurate and consistent as If the prototype has an error all the rest of
machines would replicate the same product the same products will have that fault as the
leaving less faulty products. machine replicates exactly. This would
waste valuable time, and the loss of
materials would be costly.
The company that uses it has a variety of
products rather than just one type so
therefore it gives the customer a larger
choice and hence a larger possibility of
sales.
The company is reducing its risk of simply
concentrating on one product; it produces a
variety of different ones of the same type.

1.2 Continuous process

Continuous processes refer to processing that involves moving a single work unit at a
time between every step of the process without any breaks in time, substance, sequence or
extend. As the name suggests, the flow of product or material is continuous. Every machine
operates in a steady-state and performs a certain processing function. For the majority of
applications, continuous flow saves costs, energy and time. When this process is properly
implemented, it can reduce waste, improve quality by making it easier to identify and correct
errors, increase productivity and adapt to the needs of customers more efficiently than batch
processing. Figure 2 shows the continuous flow for methanol production.

1.2.1 Process description continuous process

Referring to figure 3, The temperature of the reactor is fixed at 245°C. The syngas
feed stream is set at 25 °C and 5 bar with a molar composition of H2/CO/CO2 as H2/CO2.
The syngas fed was compressed to reactor pressure and heated to 245 °C before entering the
reactor (R-PFR). The flowsheet is composed of a compression section, a loop of reaction, and
a purification section. In the first section, the syngas is compressed to pressure reaction
pressure and then heated in a heat integration exchanger before entering the reactor. The
reaction occurs in the R-PFR, a fixed bed reactor with cooling between tubes by medium
pressure steam. The heat exchangers E-103 and E-105 perform energy integration and
cooling temperature was set to maximise recovery of methanol in the separation vessel V-101
following to a low-pressure vessel (V-102).
The gas-phase with low methanol content is recycled to the reaction´s loop where a purge is
calibrated appropriately. The recycle increases the reaction conversion and yield but should
be considered carefully due to the costs associated with the recycling. The liquid phase rich in
methanol follows to the third methanol purification section. The conditions are needed only
one distillation column to fulfils the separation requirements for water, light components and
methanol whose specification was set at 99.8 wt.% (T-101). The bottom product from the T-
101 is mainly of water. The distillate from the T-101 is cooled in the E-108 and
decompression to 1 bar generates the final product stream. The overhead vapour is formed by
light gases, which were discarded for the process. In this process, the process does not require
the considerate presence of by-product as water and carbon.

1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages continuous process

Advantages Disadvantages
The quality of output is kept uniform It is very rigid, and if there is a fault in one
because each stage develops skill through operation, the entire process is disturbed
repetition of work.
Any delay at any stage is automatically Due to continuous flow, it becomes
detected. As a result, there is automatic necessary to avoid piling up of work or any
control of time, and the direct labour content blockage on the line
is reduced.
Work-in-progress is minimum on account of
sequence balancing.
Handling of materials is reduced due to the
set pattern of the production line.
Control over materials, costs and output is
simplified. The repetitive nature of
processes makes production control easier.

From the two processes, the best way to produce mass production of methanol is by
continuous flow process. The batch process takes time to produce methanol where the
continuous produce a large quantity of production. Therefore, in the methanol production
where the best process is the continuous process. The reactor for the continuous flow is the
plug flow reactor.
2.0 INPUT-OUTPUT STRUCTURE
2.1 Continuous process

Synthesis gas Methanol

PFR Reactor

Figure 1: Input and output structure of the process concept diagram for the production of
methanol
2.2 Reaction theories
Reaction 1
CO + 2 H2 ↔ CH3OH
Reaction 2
CO2 + H2 ↔ CO + H2O
Reaction 3
CO2 + 3 H2↔ CH3OH + H2O
Reaction 4
CO2 + 4 H2 ↔ CH4 + 2H2O
Reaction 5
CO + 3 H2 ↔ CH4 + H2O
2.3 Block flow diagram

Methanol Distillation column

water

syngas
Pre-treatment PFR reactor Separation vessel

Figure 2: simple block flow diagram of methanol production

2.4 Process flow diagram

Figure 3
3.0 RECYCLE STRUCTURE
Recycle contributes to raw material in this process. The raw material is the synthesis
gas. The recycle stream is an important element to sustain the plant to generate more product
with less raw material are used. Recycling is the best and most common in industries to
separate the unreacted reactant from the product stream. To comply with modern
requirements, as flexible in production, high efficiency of raw material uses, reduced
inventories and down-to-zero design stage. In this process, the recycle stream is at the vessel
(V-101) which recycle the unreacted syngas that contains CO, CO 2, and H2. By recycling the
unreacted raw material can generate more sustainability to the plant and also reduce the cost
of buying more of the raw material.

Distillation column
Methanol

water

syngas
Pre-treatment Separation vessel
PFR reactor  

Figure 4: simple block diagram that shows a recycle system

4.0 SEPARATION STRUCTURE

The separation process is the simple process of dividing the material into it is the
component’s parts based on the type of mixture and different in the chemical properties of the
constituents of a mixture. Usually, separation techniques are essentially used methods of
purification. During the recycling process of methanol and unreacted reactant, there was also
separating vessel (V-101) that separate the methanol and unreacted reactant. A separator is
crucial for design project chemical plant. This is because the product must be further
separated and purified before they can be sold in market demand. The most common
chemical engineering separation method in design project plant is flash distillation,
continuous column distillation, batch distillation, absorption, stripping and extraction.
In this methanol production plant, the separator used in the design plant is the separating
vessel (V-101, V-102 and V-103) and distillation column (T-101) to separate the methanol
from water. The V-101is used to separate unreacted reactant and methanol. The V-102 low-
pressure vessel is used to separated methanol and unwanted gas to maximise the recovery of
methanol. The distillation column is used separated light gases, methanol, and water where
water was eliminated during this process. The V-103 separated the pure methanol and the
light component in the upper stream of the distillation column.

3
1
4

Figure 5: Separation component in the methanol production PFD

5.0 ECONOMIC POTENTIAL ANALYSIS

Methanol is perhaps the simplest organic molecule that can be used as a building
block for larger, more complicated organic molecules. For many years, technology has been
developed to produce methanol from various sources, the most recent being from the
conversion of natural gas or coal. Traditionally, the primary uses of methanol have been for
chemical production, as either a feedstock or a solvent or cosolvent. In the late 1980s, the
estimated consumption of methanol was about 15,000 metric tons per year. However, two
recent developments could significantly change the demand for methanol. One is the
requirement of oxygenates in transportation fuel. The potential of using methanol as fuel has
led to the California Fuel Methanol Study by Bechtel, Inc., sponsored by various industries.
Their report, issued in January 1989, stated that, although substantial use of methanol as a
fuel is unlikely in the immediate future, the required incorporation of oxygenates in gasoline
has added a significant demand for methanol in the form of ethers, particularly methyl tert-
butyl ether (MTBE). From the forecast, the estimation of the methanol chemical demand will
increase the demand as the country’s growth.

6.0 ENVIRONMENT CONTROL

In this process of methanol production, the raw material itself is highly flammable,
and the raw material is needed to be heated to the nearest at 245 °C and pressure at 25 atm
before entering the PFR. A sudden increase in temperature and pressure will cause an
explosion. Therefore, the instalment of heat exchanger and compressor are needed as pre-
treatment so that the temperature and pressure do not suddenly increase. All the undesired gas
product is put to vent that is put to flare PROCESS as the unwanted gas contain volatile
gases.
7.0 IDENTIFY HEAT EXCHANGERS AND THEIR UTILITIES
A heat exchanger is an equipment used to transfer heat between two or more fluids.
The fluid can be single or two-phase and depending on the exchanger type, may be separated
or indirect contact. The heat exchanger network consists of two-stream which is a cold stream
and hot stream. This heat exchanger exchanges the energy in the form of heat to reduce the
amount of new energy or furl that needed to heat up or cold in the reactant. In power plant or
engines, exhaust gases often contain heat that’s heading uselessly away into the open air.
That’s a waste of energy and something a heat exchanger can certainly reduce. When the
amount of energy reduces, the amount of utility cost also will reduce. In this production plant,
there is four (5) heater (E-101, E-102, E-103, E-105, and E-106) and three (3) cooler (E-104,
E-107, and E-108). The heat exchangers E-103 and E-105 perform energy integration. The
heat exchangers are shown in the PFD in section 8. As for the utilities, electrical energy is
crucial to operating the plant while water is needed to generate high-pressure steam for the
reaction to occur in the reactor.
The heat exchanger of E-101, E-102, E-103 are the exchanger for preheating. Because
the syngas cannot sudden increase in temperature due to the gas is highly flammable and can
cause an explosion. Same goes as the compressor C-101, C-102, and C-103 increases
pressure by stages to avoid an explosion.
8.0 PFD WITH PRELIMINARY STREAM DATA
C-101 C-102 C-103 E-101 E-102 E-103 E-104 E-105 E-106 E-107
Compressor Compressor Compressor Heater Heater Heater Cooler Heater Heater Cooler

E-108 C-104 V-101 V-102 V-103 VLV-101 VLV-102 VLV-103 P-101 T-101
Cooler Compressor Vessel Vessel Vessel Valve Valve Valve Pump Distillation
column

R-PFR
Reactor

The process description of this process is mention at section 1.2.1