Abstract
This investigation scrutinizes the economic features and potential of propylene and methanol production from natural gas in Iran because greenhouse gas emissions released by natural gas-based production processes are lower than coal-based ones. Considering the advantage of Iran’s access to natural gas, this study evaluates and compares the economic value of different plans to complete the value chain of propylene production from natural gas and methanol in the form of four units based on three price scenarios, namely, optimistic, realistic, and pessimistic, using the COMFAR III software. Iran has been ranked as the second most prosperous country globally based on its natural gas reserves. Methanol and propylene production processes via natural gas will lower the release of greenhouse gas. This, increasing the investment and accelerating the development of methanol and propylene production units driven by natural gas will lead the world to a low emission future compared to coal-based plants. The economic evaluation and sensitivity analysis results revealed that the conversion of methanol to propylene is more attractive for investment than the sale of crude methanol. The development of methanol to propylene units is more economical than constructing a new gas to propylene unit because of the lower investment costs.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Sensitivity analysis was based on economic indicators such as internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period for six units, namely, the gas to methanol (GTM) unit without feed discount (Unit 1), GTM
The results of economic evaluation and sensitivity analysis of the propylene value chain completion in Iran are as follows: If the selling price of methanol falls below USD 160 per ton, the internal return rate of
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Natural gas consists mainly of methane (80 to 95% by volume) and other light alkanes, commonly utilized for industrial electricity/heating load generation. Based on the anticipated data, the remaining reserve gas is about 6.879 trillion cubic feet [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. It is projected that the demand for natural gas will increase to 203 trillion cubic feet in 2040 [2,3,4,5,6]
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