MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF METHANOL PRODUCTION FROM COKE OVEN GAS

Abstract

Coke Oven Gas (COG) is highly rated as a valuable by-product of coke production used in the steel industry. The production of methanol from COG-derived syngas has been investigated in the last period due to its practicality as well as to the recent interest in methanol over the past years. Two case studies, using COG and CO₂ as raw-materials, are simulated and compared in the present study. In the first case the intermediate step is the dry methane reforming (DMR) while in the second case the intermediate step is steam methane reforming (SMR). The syngas obtained is furthermore converted to methanol. Beside the transformation of COG into methanol, the present study deals also with the CO₂ emissions reduction, the CO₂ generated in the COG combustion is captured using amine based gas-liquid absorption technology (e.g. methyl diethanolamine - MDEA)). ChemCAD process flow-modelling software was used as a tool to produce 250 t/day of methanol with purities higher than 99%. The results showed that the most advantageous technological route of COG and CO₂ utilization is DMR, in which, a lower quantity of raw material (COG) and lower number of equipment is required to obtain the same amount of final product.