Natural gas reforming for LNG and methanol production: Sustainability and economic viability

Jieying Liu, Guanghui Liu, Cuiying Lu, Rui Dang and Yong Gao

Energy, 2025, vol. 335, issue C

Abstract: This study proposes a novel and integrated polygeneration system that simultaneously produces methanol, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude helium, and electricity through an advanced natural gas reforming process. The system combines several subunits, including a cryogenic LNG and helium recovery unit, a syngas and methanol synthesis train, a sour water recovery section, and dual organic Rankine cycles, into a unified structure aimed at maximizing resource utilization and minimizing environmental impact. A comprehensive thermodynamic, economic, and environmental analysis reveals that the integration of a cascade of heat exchangers significantly enhances thermal performance, achieving energy and exergy efficiencies of 95.30 % and 77.17 %, respectively. While chemical reactors are identified as the primary contributors to exergy destruction (∼60 %), the sour water recovery unit demonstrates a notable sustainability benefit by providing 85.66 % of the freshwater required for reforming and synthesis processes. The system's carbon intensity is calculated at 0.11 kg CO2/kg, with indirect emissions accounting for 91 % of the total. Economically, the annual operational cost is estimated at 356.76 $M, and the methanol production cost is competitively low at 0.062 $/kg. A multi-objective optimization using the Dragonfly Algorithm further improves the system's performance, increasing energy and exergy efficiencies to 96.005 % and 79.166 %, respectively, while reducing the methanol production cost to $0.0579/kg. The proposed framework not only introduces a novel integration of resource streams but also establishes a pathway toward economically and environmentally sustainable fuel and chemical production.

Keywords: Poly-generation; Integrated methanol synthesis; Methanol production; Sour water recovery; Exergy analysis; Economic analysis; Environmental analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:335:y:2025:i:c:s036054422503899x

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.138257

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