Double-Zone Methanol Reactor: Performance Comparison with Different Coolants

Grazia Leonzio

;Giovanni Manenti;Roberto Baratti;Flavio Manenti

2025-01-01

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Abstract

Methanol is one of the most important raw materials in refining and chemical industries with a global demand continuously increasing around the world. Currently, different commercial methanol reactors are available; existing different configurations, described in open literature, are conceived to increase both productivity and yield. Within this context, a reactor configuration with a double-zone on shell-side (double-zone methanol reactor - DZMR) has been proposed in literature, such a DZM reactor can work with different shell-side coolants; yet, relevant performance with different coolants has not been analysed so far. For this reason, the aim of this work is to compare different coolants water and diathermic oil, both exchanging sensible heat only) fluxed in a small-scale DZMR for methanol production from syngas: specific consumption of coolants is compared at fixed reactor geometry, coolant velocity, gas phase temperatures, and then fixed methanol throughput. Results show that a lower flow rate of water is needed compared to that of oil. For the same productivity of 38 kg/h of methanol, 129 kg/h of water per kg/h of methanol are required against 165 kg/h of oil per kg/h of methanol. A deeper economic analysis is suggested to compare the profitability related to both coolants in a small-scale DZMR.