Preliminary Design of Methanol Plant from Coal with Gasification Process Capacity of 150,000 Tons/ Year

Methanol (CH3) is one of the hydrocarbon compounds of the alcohol group (CnH2n+2O) with an alkyl hydroxyl group (-OH). Dervative products of Methanol is acetic acid, MTBE, rubber, formaldehyde, etc. In Indonesia alone consumption of Methanol needs quite a lot, and raw material is very much. The raw material can take from Sumatera or Kalimantan. The plant is planned to establish in Sangatta area, East Kalimanatan in 2025, because near with raw material, utility, transportation. The land area is 3,800m2 and hire 159 employees. The process of Methanol is in raw materials preparation stage, coal needed is 18,939.394 kg/hour, water 8,234.519 kg/hour, and oxygen 49,242.424 kg/hour. That will be heated in Gasifier Reactor with pressure 50 atm and temperature 600°C. Then input to Water Gas Shift Reactor (WGSR), at process stage will be react with water so CO2 content will increase using catalyst CuO-ZnO-Al2O3 with pressure 49 atm and temperature 409°C. Then input to Fix Bed Reactor (FBR), CO and CO2 will be react with hydrogen to produce methanol and water content using catalyst CuO-ZnO-Al2O3 at pressure 48 atm and temperature 200°C. At purification product stage, methanol and water are separated by distillation process. Methanol purification by distillation process to obtain methanol content is 99%. Supporting unit of the plant consist of water supply as much as 968,907 kg/hour which are processed from Mataram River, provision 21,038.298 kJ/hour of saturated steam, 34,970.805 kJ/hour of superheated steam, provision 998 kW of electricity, provision 236 liters/hour of diesel fuel, and provision 3,252 kg/hour of ammonia. Amount of working capital is USD $105,381,928 and Fix Capital Investment (FCI) is $12,184,852.33. The economic analysis shows that Return On Investment (ROI) before tax is 59.93% and after tax is 45.24%. Pay Out Time (POT) before tax is 1.43 years and after tax is 1.9 years. Break event-point (BEP) is 47.74% capacity, Shut down point (SDP) is amounted at 39.57% capacity, and Discounted cash flow (DCF) is 30.28%. From data results of feasibility analysis can be concluded that the plant is profitable and feasible to be established