Methanol production units of modular type for industry decarbonization

Abstract

The production of carbon-containing chemicals is a way to decarbonize gas emissions. In particular, methanol (CH3OH) can be produced from associated petroleum gas, which is currently flared. It makes sense to use simple methods of hydrocarbon gas conversion into synthesis gas, such as partial oxidation of methane to create small modular plants for direct operation in oil and gas fields. The numerical modelling of partial oxidation is considered, taking into account the kinetics of chemical processes and the design of the equipment. In this work the several models have been built to describe partial oxidation of natural gas with air - the equilibrium and complete 3D models which take into account the phenomena of mass and energy transfer, as well as chemical transformation. The main conclusion of the model comparison is that the full numerical model predicts incomplete oxidation quite well, while the simpler equilibrium model does not. In the future, the results of the numerical modelling of oxygen methane conversion will be investigated and presented.