Production of methanol

Abstract

Abstract In the production of methanol from gaseous hydrocarbons having a lower C/H ratio than is stoichiometrically required to produce methanol and comprising the steps of catalytically cracking said hydrocarbons in the presence of water vapor at about 830° to 930° C. and about 5 to 30 bars to produce a synthesis gas consisting essentially of hydrogen and oxides of carbon, and subsequently catalytically converting said synthesis gas of hydrogen and oxides of carbon to methanol at about 230° to 280° C. and about 30 to 150 bars, the improvement which comprises transferring heat from the hot synthesis gas to the hydrocarbon-water vapor mixture flowing through the cracking catalyst thereby providing at least part of the heat required for the catalytic cracking of the hydrocarbons and reducing the consumption of thermal-/energy per unit of methanol produced. Advantageously, heat transfer is effected by passing the hot synthesis gas through a convoluted or corrugated tube embedded in the hydrocarbon cracking catalyst. Gaseous carbon-containing constituents of the methanol synthesis exhaust gas are removed by adsorption, and desorption; CO 2 may later be removed from the residual methanol synthesis exhaust gas by methanol scrubbing and subsequent stripping, both the desorbed constituents and the CO 2 being mixed with the hydrocarbons before they are cracked, whereby the C/H ratio of the hydrocarbon feed is raised and the consumption of the thermal-/energy per unit of methanol produced is reduced.

Inventors

• 👤 Emil Supp
• 👤 Heinz Jockel
• 👤 Gerhard Cornelius
• 👤 Friedmann Marschner

Bibliographic Details