A new approach for producing methanol via process integration of vacuum residue gasification and NG reforming aiming at low CO2 emissions, an extensive techno-economic study

Abstract

This work proposed and analyzed critically two different novel processes to produce highly pure methanol from vacuum residue while reducing carbon discharge into the environment. The initial path (Case I) considered newly proposed heavy vacuum residue (VR) gasification in sequence with dry reforming of methane (DMR). Whereas the second pathway investigated a parallel integration of DMR and the gasification of VR (Case II). The two processes were compared in terms of CO2 emissions, energy consumption, energy efficiency, and environmental and economic impacts. The findings demonstrated that Case II yields a higher process energy efficiency than Case I. The unit cost of methanol product for Case II is 342.2 $/t of methanol which is almost 7 % lower compared to Case I. Based on environmental analysis, Case II exhibits smaller carbon discharge of about 0.74 kg of CO2/kg of methanol.