Comparative Assessment of Catalytic Partial Oxidation and Steam Reforming for the Production of Methanol from Natural Gas

A commercial-scale (1,825 tons/day) methanol plant, operating at steady state, that uses catalytic partial oxidation (CPO) as a primary route for synthesis gas production has been simulated using the ASPEN/SP process simulator. The overall energy and utility requirements for such a plant have been calculated and compared over different operating conditions. It has been shown that the overall energy demand per ton of methanol produced is significantly affected by CPO reactor pressure, steam-to-carbon ratio in the feed, and oxygen-to-carbon ratio in the feed. The performance of this plant is then further compared with similar scale methanol plants using conventional combined reforming, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) gas heated reforming, and Exxon`s all-in-one type technologies for syngas production. Results show that CPO rates equivalently with these competing technologies on the basis of equivalent conversion.