We were soon using our proprietary technology to produce and supply methanol locally and to all regions of the world via specially engineered tanker ships. Over more than 60 years of continually expanding and diversifying our operations, we have grown into a world-leading methane provider with a fully integrated global network annually producing and delivering some 2. The versatility of methanol is making it a common fuel resource in the power generation industry.
At MGC, we use methanol as a fuel source not only in liquid form, but also in the form of highly efficient fuel cell batteries. Locations and conditions where it is impractical to utilize commercial power commonly currently use rechargeable batteries, solar cells, and gas-powered engine generators. The concentrated fuel enables consistent power production as long as the fuel lasts, making it more stable than hydrogen as well as lighter in weight and more compact, making it easier to store and transport.
This makes it an ideal fuel for power generation in emergency situations, such as after a disaster, as a back up fuel source, and as a main fuel source for sites beyond the reach of power grids. However, other feedstocks can be used. Coal is increasing in popularity as a feedstock for methanol production, particularly in China. Additionally, mature technologies available for biomass gasification are being implemented for methanol production.
Toxicity In humans, methanol has a high toxicity. As little as 10 mL can cause permanent blindness if ingested by destruction of the optic nerve. Only 30 ml can be fatal, although the typical fatal dose is ml 4 fl oz.
However, toxic effects take hours before they are evident and effective antidotes can often prevent permanent damage. Methanol is toxic by two mechanisms. First, methanol, whether ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin can be fatal due to its CNS depressant properties in the same manner as ethanol poisoning. Second, in a process of toxication, where it is metabolized to formic acid via formaldehyde in a process initiated by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver.
The reaction to formate proceeds completely, with no detectable formaldehyde remaining. Formate is toxic because it inhibits mitochondrial cyochrome c oxidase, causing the symptoms of hypoxia at the cellular level, and also causing metabolic acidosis among a variety of other metabolic disturbances.
Fetal tissue will not tolerate methanol. Methanol poisoning can be treated with the antidotes ethanol or fomepizole. Both of these drugs act to reduce the action of alcohol dehydrogenase on methanol by means of competitive inhibition so it is excreted by the kidneys rather than being transformed into toxic metabolites. The initial symptoms of methanol intoxication include central nervous system depression, headache, dizziness, nausea, lack of coordination, confusion, and with sufficiently large doses, unconsciousness and death.
The initial symptoms of methanol exposure are usually less severe than the symptoms resulting from the ingestion of a similar quantity of ethanol. Once the initial symptoms have passed, a second set of symptoms come into play, 10 to as many as 30 hours after the initial exposure to methanol, including blurring or complete loss of vision and acidosis. These symptoms are the result of the accumulation of toxic levels of formate in the bloodstream, and may progress to death by respiratory failure.
The methanol ester derivatives do not share this toxicity. Methanol is a common laboratory solvent. Feedstock By far, the largest use of methanol is in manufacture of other chemicals. Approximately 40 percent of methanol is converted to formaldehyde. This latter plant achieved its capacity with only a steam reformer containing less than tubes, showing the simultaneous improvements in reforming catalyst and technology. Figure 8 shows the twin synthesis converters on M A lot of the growth in the methanol industry through the early 21st century the third golden age of methanol expansion came from China and its booming economy.
China began to embrace new technologies for converting their coal into other chemicals and one key building block in that process was methanol. Rapidly increasing demand for a wide range of methanol derivatives, particularly olefins via the MTO process, has required a continuous supply of new methanol plants using coal gasification to provide the syngas for methanol synthesis.
To take advantage of the economies of scale, and in some cases to fit in with the economic size of a downstream MTO plant, the demand for higher and higher capacity synthesis loops has grown. With the methanol plants typically near to the coal in remote locations, the main process equipment must be transported to the sites by rail, where bridges in particular limit the maximum diameter and the infrastructure can limit the maximum weight.
Whilst vessels can be made taller and taller, for catalyst beds this will soon result in very high pressure drops. For synthesis loops above about MTPD the catalyst requirement is too great to use a single vessel and multiple converters in a single loop are required. Initially and at modest capacities, two identical parallel converters were sufficient. As capacities continued to increase, so did the complexity, with multiple converters of different types used within single loops to reduce the capital cost of the loop equipment, as shown in Figure 9 with the Johnson Matthey Combi Loop.
Other loops were designed using the Johnson Matthey Series Loop where product is recovered between converters to reset the equilibrium and increase production. The largest plants in operation by would typically have two or more converters to make up to MTPD of methanol. To minimise pressure drop and therefore compression duty in large synthesis loops, larger water cooled reactors are now available in radial flow configurations.
The second aspect of the growth in China is the coal to methanol story, which uses gasification technologies to convert coal and steam at very high temperature to syngas. Modern purification systems now allow the syngas to be substantially cleaned of sulfur and other impurities and a very pure gas is fed to the synthesis loop, unlike the systems from the s and s. Typically, coal-fed plants give a much more carbon monoxide-rich syngas compared to steam reforming of natural gas, the more exothermic route to methanol and so the ability to remove heat is even more important.
Since the introduction of the low pressure process, the focus turned to energy efficiency, especially during increasing energy prices in the s and s. Table I shows the progression of efficiency over these years by ICI through successive improvements to the integration of the whole plant. With the ever increasing focus on environmental performance, there are a number of designs and new plants in recent years which aim to set new standards for efficiency or emissions.
Using electricity from the fully renewable Icelandic grid, it electrolyses water to provide hydrogen, which is combined with carbon dioxide recovered from a local geothermal power station Other new plants are considering the emissions benefits of avoiding a steam reformer and using the GHR technology to set new standards for low emission natural gas-based plants.
Methanol demand has grown steadily for many years fuelled by economic growth in major countries around the world, a trend which is likely to continue. Many of the current plant licensors and designers have flow sheets capable of scaling up to 10, MTPD, but after a number of purported projects, it remains to be seen if the economy of scale is ready to be stretched that far or if the security of multiple trains once again wins out.
At least for now, the production of methanol via the LPM process remains dominant, despite research interest into other themodynamically attractive routes. Recent examples based on the partial oxidation of methane to methanol include the work of Zhijun Zuo et al. Whilst work such as this could open up a new, low temperature route to methanol, no such new routes have so far left the laboratory. He joined Johnson Matthey on the graduate training scheme in and has spent time in catalyst manufacturing and technology development for the ammonia and methanol industries.
Currently he provides technical support to Key Methanol Customers. Read more from this issue ». Introduction Methanol has been produced and used for millennia, with the ancient Egyptians using it in the embalming process — it was part of the mixture of substances produced in the destructive distillation pyrolysis of wood.
Basic components of a pressurised methanol synthesis loop. ICI low pressure methanol 1 plant at Billingham. Reaction path in a water cooled converter. Added global methanol capacity by year. The technology is deployed in various configurations: parallel reforming — a steam reformer and autothermal reformer ATR are used in parallel combined reforming — the steam reformer is partially bypassed and the bypass and reformed gas are combined and fed to the ATR to complete the reforming process.
Modern synthesis loop — Johnson Matthey Combi Loop. Cheng and H. Sabatier and J. Senderens, Ann. Mittasch, M. Pier, and K. Pier and C. Mittasch, and M. Mittasch, and C. Murkin and J. Brightling, Johnson Matthey Technol. Davies, F. Its use could help reduce fuel use while advancing domestic fuels. Methanol was marketed in the s as an alternative fuel for compatible vehicles. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researched the future of natural gas as a feedstock to enable more widespread adoption of methanol as a transportation fuel.
Learn more about methanol from the links below. Department of Energy do not necessarily recommend or endorse these companies see disclaimer.
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