Methanol Synthesis

Methanol production is one of the most profitable means of adding value to natural
gas. Methanol can be generated from a wide range of carbon and hydrogen sources.
Currently, large-scale production is dominated by the conversion of fossil resources,
mainly natural gas and coal, to carbon monoxide and hydrogen (synthesis gas or
syngas) as the intermediate for catalytic methanol synthesis.
In methanol plants with natural gas as the source of fossil fuel, everything begins
with the treatment of natural gas. Each natural gas reservoir contains different types
and levels of poisonous and harmful ingredients, like hydrogen sulfide, organic sulfur
containing materials, mercury, halogens and etc which can permanently or temporarily
reduce the activity of the downstream catalysts and obviously must be removed.
Accordingly, some guarding materials should be installed to protect those catalysts
against poisons and extend their lifetime. The type and concentration of the harmful
materials in the natural gas stream as well as some specific operating parameters
determine the plant design configuration and types of purification catalysts.
MS-T-01 is a methanol synthesis catalyst which can be used for various methanol
synthesis reactor types like isothermal and adiabatic quench. It has a high copper
surface area and good low-temperature activity. This catalyst has excellent
selectivity, even at high CO content in the feed gas. It contains zinc, aluminum and
copper oxides with a small amount of structure promoter to reduce the sintering of
copper particles and enhance its structure in order to preserve the activity with time.