Adiabatically reforming a reformed gas for producing methanol

Claim 1

In a process for producing methanol and purge gas in a first methanol plant and a second methanol plant wherein methanol from the first methanol plant is synthesized from a reformed gas mixture comprising hydrogen, methane, and carbon oxides produced by steam reforming C 1 to C 4 hydrocarbons and wherein methanol from the second methanol plant is synthesized from a clean synthesis gas comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide produced by partial oxidation with substantially pure oxygen of a heavy carbonaceous material, the improvement which comprises: (a) recovering purge gas containing hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide from the first methanol plant; (b) adiabatically reforming the recovered purge gas to produce adiabatically reformed purge gas; and (c) mixing adiabatically reformed purge gas with clean synthesis gas from the heavy carbonaceous material partial oxidation step and introducing the resulting mixed gas to the second methanol plant.