Techno-economic Analysis Of China’s Coke-oven Gas Based Natural Gas

Environment and energy are increasingly becoming major obstacles that restrain sustainable economic development in China. Thus, to improve environment and energy structure, China started to develop natural gas industry and a large amount of surplus Coke oven gas provides raw materials for natural gas production. Not only can natural gas produced from coke oven gas fill gaps for energy to decrease dependency on foreign natural gas, but it also can improve energy quality, reduce emissions of coke oven gas and make the best use of the energy.Besides LNG products, SNG and CNG also could be produced via rewarming and pressure adjustment by coke-oven gas-to-natural gas project the industry for which is an emerging capital, resources and technology-intensive one at demonstration stage. However, due to domestic natural gas shortage and its stable market as well as positive correlation between its price and crude oil price, large scale coke-oven gas-to-natural gas projects have been started to build all over china, this even became disorder with over-building. Hence, to promote development of natural gas produced from coke oven gas, it should be analyzed both technically and economically.This thesis first researches on current status of natural gas market and then concludes that the natural gas industry has strong potential, is competitive relative to coal and oil industry and its proportion in energy structure will be ever-increased by comparative analysis of natural gas, coal and oil through process analysis method.It evaluates from technical point of view coke-oven gas-to-natural gas technologies by comparing uses of coke oven gas including electricity generation, methanol production and natural gas production after methanation to conclude that coke-oven gas-to-natural gas industry is more competitive than others. With the distances between natural gas resources and using point being taken into consideration, this thesis analyzes three solutions including SNG, CNG and LNG for natural gas production from coke oven gas both technically and economically by static analysis method to establish corresponding production costs techno-economical model software for all solutions. This model software enables to quickly compare unit production costs for each product solution with different raw material prices and storage & transportation distances, therefore has great practical significance. This thesis analyzes technical advantages and disadvantages, technical parameters, economics and feasibility by analyzing core technologies of natural gas production from coke oven gas including natural gas liquefaction process and LNG storage technologies both technically and economically to obtain the optimal technical route.Taking a company, a coke oven gas-to-SNG company with production capacity of 34000Nm3/h as example, this thesis makes techno-economical analysis on coke oven gas-to-SNG project. After evaluation of investments, costs and benefits, it turns out this project is feasible through financial analysis. Also, sensitivity, profit and loss balance and risks on key factors has been analyzed by uncertainty analysis process to obtain objective, precise conclusion with a view of providing correct investment value for investors.