Operations
Methanol
Overview
The Coogee Methanol plant in Laverton Victoria is a joint venture between Coogee Chemicals and Mogal Marine Pty Ltd and is operated by Coogee Energy Pty Ltd. It is the only methanol production plant in Australia. The plant is based on the Leading Concept Methanol process (LCM), which was developed by Johnson Matthey Catalysts in the UK.
Methanol MSDS
Download the Methanol MSDS here.
Methanol Specification
Download the Methanol BS506 specification here.
Buying Methanol
Coogee Energy supplies methanol in bulk from its road tanker loading facility in Laverton, Victoria and by road tanker or sea tanker from its bulk storage facility in Port Botany, New South Wales.
Methanol is also available in 205 L drums through Coogee’s drum distributors at various locations throughout Australia.
All enquiries for the purchase of methanol should be sent by email to ceadmin@coogeeenergy.com.au or alternatively by telephone on +61 3 9360 2015.
Methanol Process Description
- Feedgas Preparation
Natural gas is compressed and sulphur removed by hydrodesulphurisation. The desulphurised gas is cooled and then contacted with hot water over a bed of packing to saturate the gas. Additional steam generated in the boiler is used to achieve the required steam to carbon ratio for steam reforming. The total feedstream is then pre-heated prior to reforming.
- Synthesis Gas Generation
Preheated gas flows from the pre-heater to the tube side of the gas heated reformer (GHR) where it is partly reformed over a catalyst. The partly reformed gas flows from the GHR to the secondary reformer where the bulk of the reforming takes place. The heat required for the endothermic reforming in both the GHR and secondary reformer is provided by partially burning the GHR effluent with pure oxygen.
The three main chemical reactions which occur are:
Steam reforming - CH4 + H2O = CO + 3H2
Shift reaction - CO + H2O = CO2 + H2
Combustion - 2H2 + O2 = 2H2O
The net effect of these reactions is the production of a synthesis gas stream which is composed of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2).
- Methanol Synthesis
The synthesis gas joins the synthesis loop recycle gas and is fed to the methanol converter. The converter is a tubular cooled converter design where the gas is preheated to reaction temperatures inside the tubes as it flows up through the hot catalyst bed. The hot reacted gas leaves the converter and provides heat to the saturator water circuit before finally being cooled. Crude methanol is sent to distillation whilst the uncondensed gases are recirculated back to the converter.
The two main chemical reactions which occur are:
CO + 2H2 = CH3OH
CO2 +3H2 = CH3OH + H2OThe net effect of these reactions is the production of crude methanol.
- Distillation
Crude methanol is let down in pressure and fed to the product purification section. This section consists of a topping column and a refining column. The product methanol specification is for a water content of less that 0.10 wt %. The water bottoms from the refining column have a specification of less than 100 ppm of methanol and are recycled back to the saturator.
The process consists of four main process steps: feed gas preparation, synthesis gas generation, methanol synthesis and distillation supported by utilities and offsite units.
