Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc.

Osamu Hashimoto

Yoshihiko Saito

Takashi Kojima

Yasushi Hiramatsu

Kinya Tsuji

Masaaki Kuwa

Toshio Koseki

Shoji Uematsu

A process for the production of methanol, which exhibits high energy efficiency and permits the production of methanol with apparatus of which the production capacity can be increased, the process comprising a primary reforming step of catalytically reacting a hydrocarbon with steam, a partial oxidation step of partially oxidizing a gas fed from the above primary reforming reaction step by adding an oxygen gas, a secondary reforming step of catalytically reacting a gas fed from the above partial oxidation step with steam, a step of using a high-temperature gas obtained from the secondary reforming reaction step, as a heat source for the primary reforming step, a synthesis gas preparation step of separating steam from the gas used as the above heat source to prepare a synthesis gas, and a methanol synthesis step of introducing the synthesis gas into a methanol synthesis reactor using a fluid catalyst, wherein:

Process for the production of methanol

A process for producing methanol or mixed alcohol which comprises reacting a synthesis gas containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide and/or carbon dioxide in a fluidized catalyst bed.

Process for producing methanol or mixed alcohol

A process for purifying methanol which comprises introducing crude synthetic methanol obtained by catalytic reaction of carbon oxide and hydrogen into a rectifying column either as such or after it is first introduced into a topping column and distilled with or without the addition of water to remove low-boiling components from the top of the topping column, and distilling it in the rectifying column to withdraw purified methanol from the top of the column and mainly water from the bottom of the column; wherein an auxiliary distillation column is provided side by side with the rectifying column, and the rectifying column and the auxiliary distillation column are operated under particular conditions.

Process for purifying methanol

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Niigata, Japan

Osamu Hashimoto