Cost Effective CO2 Capture from Flue Gas for Increasing Methanol Plant Production

Abstract Many methanol plants utilize steam-methane reforming (SMR) to produce syngas that is fed into a synthesis loop for producing methanol. As is typical for SMR-based methanol plants, the stoichiometry of the reactants is not at a value that is optimum for the most efficient reactor loop. In order to increase the methanol production capacity, the stoichiometry of the make-up gas can be corrected by injecting CO 2 into the process. A case study is presented in which Fluor's Econamine FG Plus SM technology is used for recovering sufficient carbon dioxide from the SMR flue gas to expand the plant capacity by approximately 20%.