From Ôyubari Coal Mine about 90, 000m
3 per day methane is drawn out for the safe operation.After extensive investigation on the utilization of this gas, the pro-duction of methanol was found to be the best.
1) Concentration of methane.
As the coal mine gas consists of 50-60% methane, 3.5% carbon dioxide and air, methane must be concentrated before use.For this purpose, the gas is compressed up to 4.6kg/cm
2, methane is liquefied and separated into two parts, the one containing 90% methane for making synthesis gas, and the other containing 30% methane for fuel gas.Care was taken that no explosion mixture exists in any part of the separation system.
2) Reforming of methane.
Methane, mixed with appropriate amount of carbon dioxide deduced from flue gas by absorbing with MEA, is reformed to synthesis gas with steam over nickel catalyst.
3) For the methanol synthesis, “Fauser Process”is introduced from Italy.The main feature of this process is the control of reaction temperature by cooling with water.Catalyst chamber is separated into four parts between which water coils are set.Water under pressure of 50 kg/cm2 runs through these coils.
4) Capacity
50t methanol/day or 16, 500t/year.
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