Methanol production at an integrated steel mill

Residual steel work gases are often utilised internally at the steel plant as a fuel and as well as for heat- and power production in heat recovery steam boilers located near the steel mill. This study aims to investigate the technical and economic consequences to use the coke oven gas (COG) to produce methanol (MeOH) to be used as automotive fuel. In a case study of a steel mill located in the northern Sweden, SSAB Tunnplåt AB in the town of Luleå, four different production processes have been studied. Two of them only use COG as a fuel, while the other two systems also use biomass based synthesis gas to blend with the COG. The results show that nearly 300 GWh of MeOH could be produced annually from COG only to a production cost in the range of €0.13 to €0.26 per litre MeOH. If also 420 GWh per year of biomass for synthesis gas production is supplied and the gas blended with the COG totally 570 GWh of MeOH can be produced annually to a similar production cost range. The main conclusion is that MeOH can be produced to a competitive cost independent of production system. Turning a steel mill into a refinery may also result in other benefits, such as better energy storage possibilities and increased incentives to utilise residual heat currently not motivated to make use of.Godkänd; 2008; 20081204 (joakim