Gasoline production plan from methanol

According to Energy Press, last week when the Minister of Oil and his deputies signed a memorandum of understanding on the development plans of 16 gas fields worth 2.7 billion dollars with holdings, petrochemical companies and exploration and production companies, Javad Oji announced that 50% of the methanol will be used to produce gasoline. will go The news is reminiscent of the early 90s, when the production of gasoline from petrochemicals caused environmental pollution and increased deaths caused by petrochemicals’ gasoline.

Some experts have warned about this issue in a conversation with “Jahansanat”. Farzin Sawadkohi was one of these experts who warned in this regard that since we had a high death rate caused by this type of gasoline-petrochemical-, if the polluting gasoline enters the public fleet again, the problem will become much more complicated than before.

Officials of the Ministry of Oil have kept silent about this issue. No one correctly announces the quality of this type of gasoline. In an interview with energy expert Mohsen Salehi, Shana News Agency, an organ of the Ministry of Oil, writes: “Petrochemicals’ gasoline was produced in aromatic units. Gasoline production from methanol is not done in the aromatic unit and is a completely different unit with a different process and catalyst. Gasoline produced from methanol is of high quality, close to Euro 5 gasoline and without sulfur. The octane number of this gasoline is 93 and without pollution.

He adds: “For one million and 650 thousand tons of methanol, with a 40% interest rate, 660 thousand tons of gasoline are produced; In other words, 660,000 tons of gasoline is equivalent to 2.5 million liters of gasoline per day. According to him, based on the economic and feasibility studies conducted by the National Petrochemical Industries Company with information from the licensor, the required capital of an MTG unit with the capacity to produce 680,000 tons of gasoline is about 330 million dollar and its construction period is shorter than huge refineries, and the return on investment rate for MTG units is estimated to be 23%, including the feed discount. Shana quoted this expert and wrote: “The process of converting methanol to heavier hydrocarbons such as olefins, gasoline and aromatics in terms of Technically, it is generally similar in terms of process and catalyst, but different in terms of reactor design, separation units and temperature and pressure parameters. Petrochemical Research and Technology Company has the technical knowledge of zeolite catalyst (ZSM5) which is used in MTG units and can supply the catalyst for the production of methanol to gasoline.

Happy petrochemicals

Certainly, if the plan to produce gasoline from methanol is worrisome and ambiguous for experts, it is a profitable plan for petrochemicals, especially since the global price of methanol has fallen and sales have become difficult due to sanctions issues. Although Iran is one of the largest producers of methanol in the world, regional competitors such as Saudi Arabia are also rapidly building methanol units so that they can take their place in the market of this product in the world.

Ahmed Mahdavi Abhari, the Secretary of the Petrochemical Industry Employers’ Association, told the market: In the production of gasoline from methanol, or MTG, a 30% discount has been considered for the feed of methanol production units whose methanol is supposed to be converted into gasoline. He believes that in such a way A discount for the production of gasoline from methanol creates a high motivation among the activists of the petrochemical industry and increases the justification of investment in this field. He said: With this work, the industry chain can be expanded and more value-added products can be produced. The country’s methanol production capacity has increased from about 5 million tons to more than 14 million tons per year in the last few years, and it is expected to reach more than 25 million tons in the next 5 years. to reach But the problem is that it is not known how much of the methanol produced in the country can be used to produce gasoline, and this is one of the vague points of the signed memorandums.

In response to the question of what capacity there is to produce gasoline from methanol in petrochemical complexes, Mahdavi Abhari told the market that the country has a large capacity in the field of methanol production, but all the production of this sector is supposed to be used for gasoline production at once. I think that 25-30% of the country’s methanol production capacity should be allocated to solve the gasoline imbalance problem.