Term Paper: Methanol Production

Term Paper: Methanol Production
Introduction:
Methanol, or methyl alcohol, is the simplest alcohol, appearing as a colourless liquid
with a distinctive smell, CH3OH, with a molecular weight equal to 32.042 u.m.a. It is
only slightly soluble in fat and oil and represents one of the most important chemical
raw materials.
Nowadays, it is considered one of the most useful chemical compounds. In fact, it is one
of the most promising building blocks for obtaining more complex chemical structures,
such as acetic acid, methyl tertiary butyl ether, dimethyl ether, methylamine, etc.
Furthermore, methanol is also considered a promising clean-burning fuel with a high
octane number.
In the last century, fossil fuels and natural gases have been our major source of energy.
Nowadays, the main competitors appear to be hydrogen and methanol. The use of
hydrogen appears to be the most promising from an energy point of view. In fact, it has
the highest energy content per unit weight of any known fuel (142 kJ/g), and in
comparison to the other known natural gases, it is environmentally safe. Among several
uses, methanol can be mixed with conventional gasoline without requiring any technical
modification in the vehicle fleet. Furthermore, methanol can be used as a convenient
energy carrier for hydrogen storage and transportation, as an easily transportable fuel,
and also in the chemical industry as a solvent and as a C1 building block for producing
intermediates and synthetic hydrocarbons.
History:
Many technologies have been developed over the years to produce methanol from
different sources. In fact, it can be synthesized from several carbon-containing
feedstocks, including natural gases (it could even be produced right at the gas well by
oxidative transformation), coal, biomass, or CO2, the latter directly recovered from the
atmosphere.
Before the development of the modern industrial era, methanol, also called wood spirit,
was prepared by wood heating in anaerobic condition. The wood distillation process
provided an extract that contained many impurities besides the methyl alcohol.
A fundamental development in methanol synthesis came from the studies of Paul
Sabatier. He found an important way to hydrogenate a large variety of functional groups
by metal-based catalysis, and among the numerous compounds he studied, a nickel-
based catalyst allowed him to obtain methyl alcohol by hydrogenation of carbon
monoxide.
Thanks to the invention of steam methane reforming, which allowed the production of
more pure syngas(a mixture of H2, CO, and CO2), a more active Cu/ZnO catalyst could
be used, thus decreasing the process temperature and pressure to about 300°C and 100
bar, respectively.
Today, the global consumption of methyl alcohol is about 92Mt/year (Fig. 1.3), and
since 1975 its production has grown at about 1433%.
Methanol Production:
As mentioned above, methanol can be produced from several carbon-containing
feedstocks, such as natural gas, coal, biomass, and CO2.
Currently, about 90% of methanol is produced from natural gas. The process route for
the production of the simplest alcohol is relatively straightforward, involving the three
following basic steps:
 Production of synthesis gas;
 Conversion of the syngas into crude methanol;
 Distillation of the reactor effluent (crude methanol) to achieve the desired purity.
The mixture of syngas (H2, CO, and CO2) is mainly produced by steam reforming (SR)
and auto thermal reforming (ATR) of natural gas, as shown in Eqs.(1.1)and (1.2),
respectively. However, it is also obtained by partial oxidation (PO) of methane (Eq.1.4)
or different carbon-based materials such as coal, heavy oils, or biogas
The value of S depends on the adopted raw material. When syngas is produced by
means of natural gas reforming, an S value of 2.8–3 is usually achieved.
Conclusion:
A comprehensive overview of methanol’s applications and production potential has
been given in this chapter. This simple alcohol is one of the biggest future frontiers for
green chemistry, both in terms of production and application. From a production point
of view, two of the three production cycles of methanol take biomasses or CO2as
starting feeds. In each case, it’s about new technological frontiers that are suitable for
reducing GHG emissions. In fact, in the first case, GHGs are reduced by means of WTE
technologies, in which solid wastes are converted into various forms that can be used to
supply energy. This also helps solve at the same time the problem of waste
management. In the second case, it can be possible to effect a direct reduction of the
amount of one of the most important GHGs (CO2), which can be captured from any
natural or industrial source, human activity, or air by absorption, and chemically
transformed into methanol. In addition, it is noteworthy that the production of
methanol from CO2can be regarded as a completely green process, considering that the
hydrogen necessary for this productive cycle can be originated from water dissociation
by electrolysis, also using a source of renewable electricity such as wind, solar, waves,
etc. As regards the application point of view, methanol is one of the most innovative and
versatile molecules. Nowadays, it is not only used as a solvent and C1 building block for
producing intermediates and synthetic hydrocarbons, including polymers and single-
cell proteins, but also as an easily transportable fuel and convenient energy carrier for
hydrogen storage and transportation. This chapter, in which attention is paid to only
some of the most innovative trends such as the production of DME, the production of
hydrogen, and the DMFC, represents a necessary general overview for a better
comprehension of this book.

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