Mini-Pilot Plant Design and Operation of a Liquid Entrained Reactor for Liquid Phase Methanol Synthesis Process

The commercial reactor type proposed for the liquid phase methanol synthesis (LPMeOH™) process is a liquid entrained reactor (LER), mainly due to its higher methanol productivity and better capability of alleviating the chemical equilibrium limitation than a mechanically agitated slurry reactor (MASR). A laboratory scale mini-pilot plant version of a liquid entrained reactor system was successfully designed and built to carry out process engineering research, as well as to demonstrate the process feasibility of the LPMeOH™ process. This paper discusses in detail, the design philosophy of the liquid entrained reactor system and its accessory peripherals. The operation of the mini-pilot liquid entrained reactor system has also justified its effectiveness in pre-scaleup investigation of the energy conversion process, at a fraction of the cost required for a pilot scale investigation