Facility Inspection Report

Bio-Methanol Facility

Prepared by: International Process Plants Hamilton Business Center 17A Marlen Drive Hamilton, NJ 08691

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Bio-Methanol Facility

Executive Summary

This facility produces 25 STPD of 99.85% pure methanol from bio-gas containing 65-70% methane. This plant started up in 2004 and shut down in 2007 due to lack of bio-gas feed from the digester operation. The equipment was originally put on a nitrogen purge and all rotating equipment was turned weekly. The plant has some stainless steel construction and appears to be in good condition. Much of the process is located indoors. The reformer tubes are Incoloy 800HT (30-35% nickel). Documentation is complete. PFDs, P&IDs, equipment files, operating manuals, general arrangement prints, layout prints, and construction prints were all observed. We have electronic copies of the PFDs, P&IDs, process description, and raw material and energy consumptions. All equipment in this plant can ship by truck. Much of the plant is skid-mounted for easy installation and removal. There is a rail loading yard located about 15 miles away from the facility. The plant was designed and engineered by a reputable engineering company that could be available for assistance in dismantling and reassembly. There is no license associated with the technology. The catalysts (nickel-based catalyst in the reformer and zinc oxide catalyst in the H2S removal beds) are still in the equipment. The anaerobic digesters can be included in the sale; however, they are “in-ground” digesters. The above-ground equipment, such as the paddle rotators and air blowers, are available and in good condition.

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Site Description

Bio-Methanol Operations

The plant was designed and engineered by a reputable engineering company that could be available for assistance in dismantling and reassembly. There is no license associated with the technology. All equipment in this plant can ship by truck. Much of the plant is skid-mounted for easy installation and removal. There is a rail loading yard located about 15 miles away from the facility. The footprint for this facility is 75’ by 125’ for the process area and 50’ by 90’ for the tank farm.

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Process Descriptions

The production rate for this facility is 5.208 gpm (25 STPD) of 99.85% pure methanol. This facility is designed for a feed composition of 65 - 70% methane, 32 - 35% carbon dioxide, 1 - 2% nitrogen, 0.2 - 0.5% hydrogen sulfide, and saturated with water. Most methanol producers feed CO2 to the reformer to get the correct composition of syngas for feeding the methanol converter. In this facility, the additional CO2 already exists in the bio-feed gas. The bio-gas is fed at the rate of 915,000 SCFD (dry). An additional 335,000 SCFD (dry) of fuel gas is used for the primary reformer and waste heat boiler firing for a total of 1,250,000 SCFD (dry) gas exiting the reformer. The utility requirements are 713 kWHr of electricity, 52 gpm of fresh water make-up, 7.0 gpm of demineralized boiler feed water, and 5.0 SCFM of instrument air. The major electrical power consumers are the feed gas compressor and the syn-gas compressor at 230 kW and 265 kW, respectively. The catalysts (nickel-based catalyst in the reformer and zinc oxide catalyst in the H2S removal beds) are still in the equipment. The MDEA solvent has been removed. This plant was closed because it could not receive enough feed gas from the digesters. The reformer and methanol plant were proven at 25 STPD methanol capacity.

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Detailed Process Description

Bio-Methanol Plant Process Flow Diagram

This plant started up in 2004 and shut down in 2007 due to lack of bio-gas feed from the digester operation. The plant has some stainless steel construction and appears to be in good condition. Much of the process is located indoors. The biogas enters through a separator for removing any condensed moisture. It is then compressed with the Frick model S70-200 SPL raw gas compressor to 40 psig (C-20 unit is rated for 350 psig). The compressor has a 175-hp electric drive motor.

Raw Gas Compressor

The compressed biogas then passes through the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) absorber column where the H2S is absorbed into a 50% solution of methyl di-ethanolamine (MDEA). The biogas is upward flow in the packed absorber column. The 304L stainless steel column is 96” diameter at the base but narrows to 36” diameter in the mid-section and at the top.

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The H2S absorber column is 58.5’ tall with wall thicknesses ranging from 0.375” to 0.438”. The column is rated for 50 psig at 300oF and uses one 20’ packed section.

H2S Absorber Column

The MDEA solution is regenerated in a typical sulfur removal operation with multiple mixing and heating tanks. There is a small Sharples model P660 centrifuge (C-54) for removing solid sulfur particles from the solution. This small centrifuge has 6" x 15" bowl dimensions and is rated for 3,180 G-force at 6,000 rpm. It has stainless steel product contact areas. For additional solids removal, a portion of the MDEA stream is filtered. The biogas going overhead from the H2S absorber column is then cooled and any condensed moisture is removed in another separator. The gas is sent to the Frick model RXF 50R feed gas compressor, where it is compressed to 200 psig (C-100 unit is rated for 300 psig) in an oil-flooded helical rotary-screw compressor. This compressor has a 125-hp drive motor. There is a complete spare C-100 compressor still in the crate.

Feed Gas Compressor

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The compressed biogas is then sent to the acid gas absorber column. The acid gas (H2S and CO2) is absorbed into an MDEA solution, which is then separated. The acid gases are incinerated in the reformer. The clean MDEA solution is recycled back to the acid gas absorber column. The stripper is 16” diameter by 49’-4” tall with two 16’ packed sections. It is constructed of carbon steel and is rated for 250 psig at 150oF.

Acid Gas Absorber

The compressed biogas is heated to 700oF by cross-exchange with the hot synthesis gas exiting the reformer. The hot biogas then passes through zinc oxide catalyst beds where any traces of H2S are removed to less than 0.1 ppm. The beds are arranged in a lead/lag configuration so that the spent catalyst can be easily replaced. These catalyst beds are 20” diameter by 8’ tall and are constructed of carbon steel. The hot, purified biogas is then mixed with steam and fed to the reformer (R171). This direct-fired heater contains furnace tubes that are filled with nickel catalyst. The 4” schedule 80 tubes are constructed of Incoloy 800HT. The reformer is rated for 7.24 MM BTU/hr. There are 15 tubes that are 38’ long, not counting the bends. The biogas already contains CO2, so this facility does not need to add CO2 to the reformer feed as is typical with most methanol plants.

Reformer

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The composition of the syngas is:

Component Mole %Hydrogen 68.48Methane 2.00Carbon Dioxide 11.50Carbon Monoxide 16.98Water 0.51Nitrogen 0.53

The radiant section of this reformer is approximately 50% efficient. However, the efficiency is boosted to 90% by utilizing the steam-generating convection section of the furnace. The hot synthesis gas exiting the reformer is 1,575oF and 180 psig. It is cooled to 100oF through a series of steam-generating heat exchangers to recover the waste heat from the process, combined with a final cooling-water exchanger. The waste-heat boiler (WH-602) is rated for 250 psig at 500oF. It is 8’ diameter by 14’ long and can produce 2,748 lbs/hr of 200 psig steam with a syngas flow on the tubes of 4,948 lbs/hr. The energy capacity for this boiler is 3.5 MM BTU/hr.

Waste Heat Boiler

The syngas at 100oF and 168 psig is then compressed to 1200 psig with the Knox-Western model 4445 (KW #13450) syngas compressor. This compressor is a four-stage inter-cooled reciprocating unit with a 4-1/2” stroke and maximum rpm of 1200. The cylinder sizes are 8-1/4”, 7”, 7”, and 5-1/2”. The drive is a 450-hp Westinghouse motor fed with 460 volts.

Syngas Compressor The compressed fresh syngas is then combined with the large recycle syngas stream and heated to 450oF. The hot, compressed syngas then enters the methanol converter, which is a pseudo-isothermal reactor with Cu-Zn catalyst in the converter tubes.

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The two carbon steel methanol converters are 3’ diameter by 10’ tall and are rated for 1200 psig at 500oF.

Methanol Converters

The syngas passes down-flow through the converter, where approximately 7% of the feed is converted to methanol. Less than 5,000 ppm of other hydrocarbons, such as alcohols, dimethyl ether, methyl formate, acetones, and ketones, are also produced. The reactor products exit at 485oF and are cooled first by cross-exchanging with the reactor feed, and secondly with cooling water. The crude methanol product is stored in the 9,000-gallon intermediate storage tank in the tank farm. The overhead gases from the separator are sent to the recycle compressor. The recycle compressor (C280) is actually one cylinder of the syngas compressor (C201) as can be seen in the previous process flow diagram. The unreacted syngas is recycled back to the inlet of the methanol converters. The crude methanol is first heated and is pumped to the refining column. This column uses a 304 stainless steel tubed reboiler cross-exchanger using the hot syngas from the reformer. The reflux condenser on the refining column uses cooling water to condense the overheads and provide the reflux stream.

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The refining column is constructed of ½” thick 304L stainless steel for the top section and ½” thick carbon steel with 1/8” thick 304L stainless steel cladding for the bottom section. It is 3’ diameter by 82.5’ tall and is rated for 100 psig. There are two 20’ packed sections in this column.

Refining Column

The uncondensed vapors leaving the overhead condenser are at 157oF and 3 psig. Water from the bottom of the refining column is routed to the deaerator. Methanol product is removed from the refining column just below the overhead condenser and cooled with cooling water. It is stored in five storage tanks in the tank farm. Two tanks are 16,800-gallon and made of carbon steel (12’ diameter by 20’ tall), and three are 28,000-gallon and made of fiberglass.

Methanol Condensing Skid

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Utilities There is one Ingersoll-Rand and two Gardner-Denver (C951A/B) air compressors available. The Gardner-Denver model EBE-FH unit has 25-hp drive motors and a built-in Hydroloc air dryer system. Four panels of electrical switchgear in the motor control center (MCC) are available along with the main electrical disconnect. The main transformer stays. There is also a small Mitsubishi uninterrupted power supply (UPS). There is a Holtec nitrogen-producing PSA unit that can produce up to 98% pure nitrogen. There is a small, Marley NC Class cooling tower. The carbon steel Allied flare is 40’ tall with a 14” tip. It has two pilots and an electronic ignition system. The reverse-osmosis (R-O) unit is a Water Equipment Technology model MS-60K/980. It supplies 40 gpm of demineralized water. There is a water softener unit with the same capacity adjacent to the R-O unit. The boiler is a Cleaver-Brooks CB200-350 unit rated for 350 hp (14.6 MM BTU/hr) at 200 psig. It can be fired with propane, biogas, or fuel oil.

Boiler

There are bullet tanks for nitrogen and propane storage.

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Equipment List

All equipment is vintage 2003-2004 unless otherwise stated.

Diameter Height Comments Material ofMajor Equipment Description Quantity (ft) (ft) Construction

Outdoor Process Equipment

T50 H2S Absorber Column 1 8' -> 3' 58.5 50 psig @ 300oF 304L SS

T130 CO2 Absorber Column 1 1.3 49.3 250 psig @ 150oF CS

T140 Refining Column 1 3.0 82.5 100 psig 304L SS/CS

V160A/B Zinc Oxide Beds 2 1.7 8.0 250 psig @ 750oF CSR171 Reformer 1 12.0 50.0 Square CSR171 Reformer Tubes 15 0.3 38.0 4" Sch 80 tubes Incoloy 800HT

WHB602 Waste Heat Boiler 1 8.0 14.0 250 psig @ 500oF CS

Process Building

R230 Methanol Converters 2 3.0 10.0 1200 psig @ 500oF CSC20 Raw Gas Compressor 1 Frick Model S70-200 SPL CentrifugalC100 Feed Gas Compressor 1 Frick Model RXF 50R CentrifugalC201 Syngas Compressor 1 Knox-Western Recip Model 4445

Tank FarmNitrogen Bullet Tank 1 9.1 40.9 0.673" thk, 1980 bullet tank CSPropane Bullet Tank 1 8.8 71.2 0.750" thk, 1966 bullet tank CS