Major capacity increase

When Clients demand a huge capacity increase more than 30%, Casale portfolio contains several innovations to achieve such challenging scope. These are:

• CO2 injection (in combination with the Isothermal Methanol Converter (IMC™) in the synthesis loop)
• Autothermal reactor (ATR)
• Once Through Reactor (OTR)
• Isothermal Methanol Converter (IMC™)

In case of major capacity increase, in order to enhance the production of the synthesis gas the following strategies can be followed:

• Autothermal reformer: ATR can be installed either downstream the primary reformer and also in parallel to the reformer itself. The advantage of ATR with respect to POx is the possibility of having much bigger size in a single unit.
• CO2 injection: it is an effective technique for increasing the capacity where a large amount of carbon dioxide is available. The extra carbon dioxide can be injected into the reformer or the synthesis loop, balancing the excess of H2 typical of steam reforming route.

In order to debottleneck the loop, existing adiabatic converter can be revamped to isothermal technology using Casale IMC (Isothermal Methanol Converter). Another way of processing a higher flow of make-up gas is to install an additional converter on the make-up gas line, which the so-called "once-through" reactor. Steam raising IMC is particularly suitable for such operation.

The Distillation Section revamping options have to be evaluated to comply with the increased methanol production from the reaction section. For extreme capacity increase purpose, Casale proposes the addition of High Pressure Column, where it is not already installed, along with the revamp of the internals of the existing ones. Especially when the plant is already equipped with three columns, an alternative option is the New Fusel Oil Column.