- Technology Introduction
Common crude methanol distillation process
| serial number | Refined methanol distillation process engineering | Features |
| 1 | Single tower process | 1. Separate methanol-water-heavy components in a tower
2. Advantages: save investment and reduce heat loss 3. Disadvantages: The resulting refined methanol is not pure enough |
| 2 | twin tower process | 1. Use a combination of pre-distillation tower and main distillation tower
2. Suitable for refining crude methanol containing light components such as dimethyl ether and low reducing magnesium content 3. Advantages: simple process, convenient operation, low one-time investment 4. Disadvantages: high energy consumption, insufficient product purity |
| 3 | Three tower process | 1. Three distillation towers are operated at equal pressure, and the products are extracted from the third distillation tower.
2. Advantages: Product purity is high 3. Disadvantages: high investment and large floor space |
| 4 | Multi-effect distillation process | 1. Two main distillation towers plus a final distillation tower are used. The first main distillation tower is a pressurized tower, and the second distillation tower is an atmospheric tower. Products are extracted from both towers, each accounting for half.
2. Advantages: energy saving; reducing ethanol content in refined methanol, better product quality; higher methanol yield, low operating costs 3. Disadvantages: high investment in one wash |
Our company’s crude methanol distillation technology is based on the fourth energy-saving three-tower process. Its main feature is to fully optimize the heat exchange network to minimize the utilization of steam and circulating water to achieve energy saving and investment optimization. (1) The process yield is high: the recovery rate of refined methanol is 99.86% (the ratio of the output of refined methanol to the mass of methanol contained in the feed).
(2) Adopt a mature double-effect distillation method: use the gas phase at the top of the pressurized tower as the heat source for the reboiler of the atmospheric tower.
- Typical projects
300,000 tons/year 90.82% methanol distillation case
Processing capacity: 300,000 tons/year
Running time: 8000 hours
Operation flexibility: 60%-120%
Raw material specifications:
| serial number | Components | unit | content |
| 1 | H2 | ppm | 15 |
| 2 | N2 | ppm | 91 |
| 3 | CO | ppm | 91 |
| 4 | CO2 | %wt | 2.23 |
| 5 | CH4 | ppm | 53 |
| 6 | n-heptane | ppm | 40 |
| 7 | n-octane | ppm | 30 |
| 8 | Isopropylaldehyde | ppm | 0 |
| 9 | Methyl formate | ppm | 50 |
| 10 | Methyl acetate | ppm | 50 |
| 11 | n-Propanol | ppm | 40 |
| 12 | Isobutanol | ppm | 7 |
| 13 | n-butanol | ppm | 20 |
| 14 | Isoamyl alcohol | ppm | 6 |
| 15 | ethanol | ppm | 70 |
| 16 | water | %wt | 6.48 |
| 17 | Methanol | %wt | 90.82 |
Main product specifications
The quality of methanol products complies with the national standard of the People’s Republic of China “Methanol for Industrial Use” (GB338-2004) for superior products and the U.S. Federal Standard for Industrial Methanol (OM-232G) “AA” grade.
| serial number | project | Specification | unit | consume |
| 1 | steam | 0.5Mpa（G） | t | 1.12 |
| 2 | circulating cooling water | 32℃~40℃ | m3 _ |
- Project pictures
For more detailed crude methanol refining technology information, please contact us. Hubei Sanli Liquidambar Technology Co., Ltd. specializes in providing crude methanol refining technology.