Abstract
The Natuna gas field is one of the largest natural gas reserves in Indonesia with estimated natural gas reserves of 222 TCF. However, until now, the use of Natuna gas is still hampered because of the very high CO2 content reaching 71%, while the methane content is around 28%. The dry reforming of methane (DRM) process is one of the potential ways to be applied for solving these problems to convert CH4 and CO2 to synthesis gas containing CO and H2 as a raw material that can be applied to manufacture as intermediate products or end products in the petrochemical industry such as acetic acid. The simulation of the acetic acid production was conducted by using ASPEN HYSYS v.10, considering mass and heat balances. The PengRobinson was applied for dry reforming of methane process. In order to produce 496.8 kmol/h of the acetic acid, the 500 kmol/h for each CH4 and CO2 were used as feed gas. The total energy required is 4.7 MMBtu per ton of acetic acid. The acetic acid has a purity of 99.4% with a concentration of 500 ppm methanol, and moisture content of 5,700 ppm.
Highlights
The Natuna gas field is one of the biggest natural gas reserves in the world with estimated natural gas reserves of 222 TCF
With only 28% of methane content, the use of Natuna natural gas requires a thorough and comprehensive technical study (Sumartono, 2000). This high CO2 content when discharged into the air after fed purification can increase greenhouse gases, so the high amount of CO2 needs to be processed into a useful product
The model was built by considering the following considerations. - Product specifications could be seen in Table 1. - Steady state operating system. - No energy lost in the system. - The pressure drops in the reactor for dry reforming of methane, methanol formation, and acetic acid formation were set to 0.4 bar, 1 bar, and 0.8 bar. - The DRM reactor used had a length of 10 m, a diameter of 0.2 m, and 1500 tubes were used in the simulation
Summary
The Natuna gas field is one of the biggest natural gas reserves in the world with estimated natural gas reserves of 222 TCF. Until now, Natuna gas utilization is still hampered due to the high CO2 content, which reaches 71%. With only 28% of methane content, the use of Natuna natural gas requires a thorough and comprehensive technical study (Sumartono, 2000). This high CO2 content when discharged into the air after fed purification can increase greenhouse gases, so the high amount of CO2 needs to be processed into a useful product. The method of utilizing natural gas generally uses reforming technology which can convert natural gas into synthesis gas. Reforming technologies include steam reforming, partial oxidative reforming, and dry reforming (Balasubramanian et al, 2018)
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