MODELING AND SIMULATION OF METHANOL SYNTHESIS FROM SYNGAS

Abstract

Methanol is very commonly used as a feedstock in the chemical industries. It is also used as fuel and as a solvent. The catalysts are used and widely studied in this field. Nowadays, one of the main interests is the use of CO2 as a feedstock in methanol synthesis. Even though methanol has been produced commercially since 1923, the reaction mechanism and kinetics are still an open question. This report presents a short literature review of methanol synthesis and its kinetics and modelling. In the present work, a one dimensional mathematical model for a shell and tube fixed bed reactor has been developed under adiabatic conditions based on the mass balances and kinetic models from the literature. The model is used to evaluate the steady-state behavior of the process. The mathematical model comprises of six ordinary differential equation for the five components participating in the reaction for synthesis of methanol along with an equation of energy balance. These model equations have been solved by using ode solver tool ode45 in MATLAB 2013 and has been simulated for best reactor conditions of pressure, temperature and molar feed ratio. In view of the simulation results, it has been concluded that the shell and tube fixed bed reactor best operates at high pressure, low temperature and at a H2/CO2 molar feed ratio of 3.0 which results in the maximum production of methanol.