Study On The Optimization Of The Unit For Natural Gas Steam Reforming

The optimization of unit for natural gas steam reforming was of significance to enhance economic benefits and decrease energy consumption since natural gas steam reforming, as a relatively full-fledged and easy-operation process, was widely applied in natural gas chemical industry.In the case of the two methanol-production devices(China Blue Chemical Ltd.) in Hainan Province, China, the synthesis gas for methanol production was prepared by natural gas steam reforming method with Ni-based material serving as catalyst. Given the reality of the operating units in the synthesis procedures, the main control parameters including control pressure and outlet temperature of reforming furnace, water/carbon ratio, oxygen content as well as pipe exhaust temperature were analyzed and optimized in this paper so as to achieve the best control parameters by analyzing the effects of these parameters on methane conversion and energy consumption of the whole plant. On the other hand, the effective solutions for the various problems in the production process were provided by theoretical analysis and actual observation. The results after optimization were also analyzed and summarized so as to provide guidelines for the maintenance and optimization of these two methanol-producing devices and other similar devices and processes.The corresponding results demonstrate that online calcination method can recover the activity of catalyst when the carbon deposition content is low; A higher fuel gas temperature leads to a lower fuel gas consumption, and benefits the economy. Furthermore, the lowest energy consumption of the whole plant and the highest economics benefit can be obtained when water/carbon ratio, reforming furnace pressure, oxygen content in reformer and reformer temperature are 3.2~3.4, 1.45~1.58 MPa, 1mol%~1.38mol%, 855 °C, respectively, as well as reducing the temperature difference among tubes.