Process design and simulation study: CO2 utilization through mixed reforming of methane for methanol synthesis

Abstract

A case study is performed using Aspen HYSYS to investigate CO2 utilization for methanol synthesis. The base case is a conventional steam methane reforming process for methanol production. Two modified cases (mixed reforming with/without CO2 capture after the reformer) are developed with the aim to increase CO2 utilization. Simulation results revealed that both stoichiometric number and CO/CO2 ratio played an important role on syngas reactivity, which led to an overall increase in methanol yield. As a result, the volume of unreacted gas in the synthesis loop was reduced and allowed for a smaller reactor design. In terms of overall CO2 intensity, no significant improvements can be observed since the base case had a large volume of H2 rich purged gas sent to the reformer furnace. When the purged gas was not used as a reformer fuel, the CO2 intensity of the other cases became 50% less than the base case.