Patent Application
20160063414
The present disclosure generally relates to determining a configuration of a methanol production facility, and, in particular, determining a recommended configuration for constructing a methanol production facility.
Demand for methanol is increasing and has resulted in an increased demand for methanol production. Presently, methanol production facilities are constructed as standalone facilities that require little, if any, resources from external sources. Constructing a methanol production facility requires large capital expenditures, often approaching or exceeding one billion dollars prior to beginning methanol production. Furthermore, the sales price of methanol, like other commodities such as oil and natural gas, fluctuates almost daily. This fluctuation in price, in conjunction with the extremely high construction costs, creates uncertainty for entities contemplating construction of or financing of a methanol production facility or other type of refinery.
Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable storage devices for determining a recommended configuration for constructing a methanol production facility are disclosed. Determining the recommended configuration for constructing the methanol production facility may include determining whether to construct the methanol production facility with a plurality of components that produce resources (e.g., oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc.) utilized during the production of methanol, or whether to construct the methanol production facility without one or more of the plurality of components. The configuration of the methanol production facility may be determined based on geographic information, availability of alternative sources for the resources (e.g., sources other than the plurality of components), costs for transporting the resources from the alternative sources to the methanol production facility, regulations associated with constructing and operating the methanol production facility, a desired internal rate of return (IRR) for the methanol production facility, other factors, or a combination thereof.
Constructing the methanol production facility with the plurality of components may require a greater initial capital expenditure (CapEx) than constructing the methanol production facility without one or more of the plurality of components. However, operational expenses (OpEx) for producing methanol at a methanol production facility that includes the plurality of components may be lower than an OpEx for producing methanol at a methanol production facility that does not include one or more of the plurality of components. Systems, methods, and apparatuses disclosed herein may be configured to receive a proposed configuration for a methanol production facility, and, based on the proposed configuration, generate at least one alternative configuration for the methanol production facility. An amount of CapEx required to construct the methanol production facility using any of the at least one alternative configurations is lower than an amount of CapEx required to construct the methanol production facility using the proposed configuration, however, OpEx for producing methanol at the methanol production facility is higher using any of the at least one alternative configurations relative to the proposed configuration. The systems, methods, and apparatuses may also be configured to generate a report that includes estimates of CapEX and OpEx for each configuration (e.g., the proposed configuration and at least one of the alternative configurations) of the methanol production facility. The report may also include an estimated internal rate of return (IRR) for each configuration of the methanol facility, and may also include one or more geographic location recommendations associated with constructing the methanol facility using at least one of the alternative configurations.
Configuring a methanol production facility according to one or more of the aspects disclosed herein may also reduce or eliminate delays for initiating production of methanol at the methanol production facility and increase operational reliability of the methanol production facility. Methanol production facilities configured according to one or more aspects of the present disclosure may also be scaled up to the proposed configuration incrementally over time, and operational safety of the methanol production facility may be increased. Additional aspects for configuring a methanol production facility, and benefits provided by configuring the methanol production facility according to the present disclosure are described in more detail.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to
As shown in
The I/O devices 128 may include a printer, a mouse, a keyboard, a touchscreen display device, a scanner, a numeric keypad, other types of I/O devices, or a combination thereof. The communication interface 126 may be configured to communicatively couple the electronic device 120 to one or more networks, such as the network(s) 150, as shown in
The network(s) 150 may be a wired network, a wireless network, or may include a combination of wired and wireless networks. For example, the network 150 may be a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN, a wireless LAN (WLAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wireless MAN network, a cellular data network, a cellular voice network, the internet, another type of network, or a combination of these networks. Additionally, the network(s) 150 may include multiple networks operated by different entities (e.g., different network service providers).
The electronic device 120 may be in communication with a database, such as the database 140, and may use information stored at the database 140 to determine the alternative configuration of the methanol production facility. In an aspect, the database 140 may be stored at the electronic device 120 (e.g., at the memory 124). In an additional or alternative aspect, the database 140 may be stored external to the electronic device 120 (e.g., at a network storage device not shown in
During operation, the electronic device 120 may receive a request 102 from the client device 110 via the network(s) 150. The request 102 may include information associated with a proposed configuration for the methanol production facility. For example, the request 102 may include information specifying a plurality of components that are to be integrated to construct the methanol production facility. Once constructed, the plurality of components are operational to receive a feedstock (e.g., methane) and to transform the feedstock into methanol using a series of chemical reactions and other processes.
To illustrate, and referring to
After removing the sulfur from the feedstock 202, the HDS component 210 provides the feedstock to the reforming component 220 to produce syngas. The reforming component 220 may be configured to generate hydrogen and carbon monoxide by heating the feedstock received from the HDS component 210. The reforming component 220 may be a steam methane reforming (SMR) component or may be an autothermal reforming (ATR) component, or a combination of the two (e.g., combined reforming). The SMR component may be more costly to construct than the ATR component, but may be more cost-effective to operate than the ATR. In some applications, the reforming component 220 may use a portion of the feedstock to generate the heat used to heat the remaining portion of the feedstock, which may reduce the amount of methanol produced per unit of feedstock received at the methanol production facility.
Because the feedstock output from the reforming component 220 may be very hot, it is passed to the cooling component 230 to be cooled. During the cooling, steam may be generated (e.g., as the hot syngas is cooled). In an embodiment not shown, the feedstock can be preheated against the hot syngas. The steam may be provided to other components to facilitate operations of the other components or to assist with the operation of the other components. For example, as indicated at 232, the steam may be provided to the power generation unit 270 which may produce electricity using the steam. This may reduce an amount of power received from external sources, indicated at 272. During operations of the cooling component 230 and the compression component 240, the hot syngas coming from the reforming component 220 may be cooled and compressed before being sent to the methanol synthesis component 250.
The methanol synthesis component 250 is configured to convert the cooled, compressed syngas into methanol. In an embodiment not shown, a raw methanol stream is produced by reacting the syngas stream over a catalyst bed. The raw methanol stream may include methanol, water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane. The raw methane can then be sent to a liquid/gas separator to remove dissolved offgases (e.g., CO, CO2, H2, and CH4) from the raw methanol. The resulting stream can then be sent to a distillation system configured to separate water from the methanol, resulting in a methanol stream and a water stream. As such, the methanol synthesis component 250 may be configured to provide the methanol to a pipeline or other destination, such as a storage facility (not shown in
The air separation component 280 may be configured to generate oxygen, which may be provided to the reforming component 220, where it is used during the reforming. As shown in
Referring back to
Based on the analysis of the proposed configuration, the electronic device 120 may estimate a first cost corresponding to an amount of capital expenditure required to construct the methanol production facility using the proposed configuration, and may estimate a second cost corresponding to operational expenses for operating the methanol production facility configured according to the proposed configuration over a period of time (e.g., 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, etc.). In an aspect, the period of time may be determined from information included in the request 102.
After analyzing the proposed configuration of the methanol production facility, the electronic device 120 may determine an alternative configuration of the methanol production facility. The alternative configuration may be different from the proposed configuration. For example, the alternative configuration may omit one or more of the plurality of components indicated in the proposed configuration. To illustrate, based on the requirements of the plurality of components, the electronic device 120 may identify resources accessible to a proposed location for the methanol production facility. The proposed location may be indicated in the request 102.
The resources may be determined based on geographic data, pipeline data, other data, or a combination thereof. In an aspect, the geographic data may be stored at the database 140 as geographic data 144 and the pipeline data may be stored at the database 140 as pipeline data 146. The geographic data may include topology data representative of a topology of the proposed location for the methanol production facility. The pipeline data 146 may include information identifying a plurality of existing pipelines, and may indicate a resource provided by each of the plurality of existing pipelines. The identified resources may be accessible from at least one source external to the methanol production facility, such as operators or providers of the pipelines, and each of the identified resources may be utilized in the production of methanol at the methanol production facility using the proposed configuration. For example, the identified resources may include hydrogen pipelines, carbon dioxide pipelines, oxygen pipelines, methanol pipelines, feedstock pipelines, or other pipelines that are accessible to the proposed location for the methanol production facility. Additional examples of resources that may be provided by pipelines and that may be identified using the pipeline data 146 include water pipelines, steam pipelines, nitrogen pipelines, air pipelines, etc.
In an aspect, the electronic device 120 may determine a distance between each of the one or more pipelines and the proposed location, and determine whether a distance between the proposed location and each of the one or more pipelines is within a threshold distance. The distance may correspond to a distance at which it is not economically feasible to construct infrastructure for tapping into the pipelines from the proposed location, or a distance at which transmission of a resource provided by the pipeline is subject to pressure drops, or some other factor. In addition to identifying resources accessible via the pipelines, the electronic device 120 may determine whether other resources, such as water, roads, etc., are proximate to the proposed location.
The electronic device 120 may designate pipelines within the threshold distance as accessible pipelines, and may designate resources provided by the accessible pipelines as the resources accessible to the proposed location. The electronic device 120 may determine, based on the proposed configuration information or information stored at the database 140, whether the resources accessible to the proposed location include all of the resources utilized in producing methanol at the methanol production facility using the proposed configuration. In an aspect, at least one of the resources utilized in the production of methanol at the methanol production facility using the proposed configuration may be generated by a component indicated by the proposed configuration, such as hydrogen produced by the PSA component of
The electronic device 120 may identify a subset of the accessible pipelines. The subset of pipelines may include a single pipeline selected from among the accessible pipelines for each resource utilized in the production of methanol at the methanol facility using the proposed configuration (or for each resource utilized in the production of methanol that is also included in the resources accessible to the proposed location). In an aspect, the electronic device 120 may estimate an infrastructure cost for each pipeline of the accessible pipelines. For a particular pipeline of the set of pipelines, the infrastructure cost may correspond to a cost to build infrastructure (e.g., a pipeline) from the proposed location to the particular pipeline to provide the proposed location with access to a resource included in the second set of resources. Each pipeline included in the subset of pipelines may be associated with a lowest infrastructure cost for a particular resource of the resources accessible to the proposed location. In an aspect, the infrastructure costs for each pipeline in the subset of pipelines may be accounted for by the electronic device 120 when generating the third cost (e.g., CapEx associated with constructing the methanol production facility using the alternative configuration).
The electronic device 120 may determine whether all resources generated by one or more of the plurality of components of the proposed configuration may be provided by the subset of pipelines. For example, let “X” be the set of resources generated by components of the proposed configuration (e.g., oxygen by the air separation component 280 of
Determining the alternate configuration may include determining, based on the resources provided by the subset of pipelines, a first set of components that may be removed from the proposed configuration of the methanol production facility (e.g., because the resources generated by the first set of components may be provided via the subset of pipelines), and may include determining, based on the resources provided by the subset of pipelines, a second set of components that may not be removed from the proposed configuration (e.g., because those components do not generate a resource that may be provided by a particular pipeline or because those components do not generate a resource). The first set of components may be removed from the configuration of the methanol production facility in the alternative configuration while the second set of components are retained in the alternative configuration. Thus, when the methanol production facility is constructed according to the alternate configuration, the resources generated by the first set of components may be provided by the subset of pipelines, as opposed to generated by one or more components of the methanol production facility.
To illustrate, and with reference to
An additional benefit of eliminating the air separation component 280 may be a reduced amount of power provided from external sources. For example, by eliminating the air separation component 280, power supplied to the air separation component 280 from an external source may also be eliminated, as indicated at 274. Furthermore, the steam, indicated at 234, that may have been provided to the air separation component 280, may now be provided in greater quantities to the power generation component 270, increasing an amount of power generated at the power generation component 270 and reducing the amount of energy received from the external sources. As indicated at 276, excess power (e.g., power exceeding the requirements of the components of the methanol production facility) generated by the power generation component 270 may be sold, thereby creating an additional source of revenue for the methanol production facility. A greater quantity of steam may also be provided to the compression component 240, which may reduce the operating costs of the compression component 240.
When the reforming component 220 is an SMR component or includes both the SMR component and an ATR component, a carbon footprint (e.g., carbon dioxide emissions) of the methanol production facility, and a rate of methanol production for the methanol production facility may be affected by a size of the SMR component. To illustrate, as a size of the SMR component increases, the rate of methanol production increases, and as the size of the SMR component decreases, the rate of methanol production decreases. Stated another way, larger SMR components produce a larger volume of carbon monoxide and hydrogen relative to smaller SMR components, thereby increasing the rate at which the methanol production facility generates methanol (e.g., by subsequently reacting the carbon monoxide and hydrogen). In addition to producing carbon monoxide and hydrogen, the SMR component produces offgases, such as carbon dioxide. The volume of offgases produced by the SMR component increases and/or decreases relative to the size of the SMR. The offgases produced by the SMR component are often flared from the methanol production facility. Thus, the carbon footprint of the methanol production facility increases as the size of the SMR component increases due to the increased production of offgases (e.g., carbon dioxide) and decreases as the size of the SMR component decreases.
Providing carbon dioxide and hydrogen to the methanol production facility via pipelines, as indicated at 222 and 292 respectively, may reduce a carbon footprint of the methanol production facility relative to the size of the reforming component (e.g., the size of the SMR component) while increasing a rate of methanol production for the methanol production facility. For example, the hydrogen provided via the pipeline may be reacted with the carbon dioxide provided by the pipeline to generate additional methane, which may the SMR component may transform into additional carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which may increase an amount of methanol produced by the methanol production facility without increasing the size of the SMR component and without increasing the carbon footprint of the methanol production facility. Additionally, when the carbon dioxide and the hydrogen are provided to the methanol production facility, the operational reliability of the methanol production facility may be increased. For example, if a disruption (e.g., pipeline repairs, pipeline maintenance, etc.) occurs to the pipeline that provides the feedstock to the methanol production facility, production of methanol may continue using only the carbon dioxide and the hydrogen provided via the pipelines, as indicated as 222 and 292, respectively. Producing methanol (or supplementing the production of methanol) using the hydrogen and the carbon dioxide provided via the pipelines may increase the OpEx of the methanol production facility. It is noted that
As another example, providing the hydrogen to the methanol production facility via the hydrogen pipeline may eliminate the need to include the PSA component 260, further reducing the CapEx required to construct the methanol production facility according to the alternate configuration. As shown in
However, providing the oxygen and the hydrogen to the methanol production facility via the pipelines, as indicated at 290, 292, respectively, may increase the OpEx of the methanol production facility relative to the OpEx associated with the proposed configuration. The increased OpEx may be caused by the purchase of the hydrogen and the oxygen from the pipelines. Thus, the electronic device 120 may estimate a cost to purchase the resources from one or more operators (e.g., operators of the oxygen and hydrogen pipelines). The OpEx associated with the alternate configuration may be determined based at least in part on the cost to purchase the resources from the one or more operators. It is estimated that providing resources to the methanol production facility using pipelines, as described above, may increase OpEx for the methanol production facility by five percent (5%), which is relatively low compared to the twenty five percent (25%) reduction in CapEx according to the alternate configuration.
An additional benefit of providing resources to the methanol production facility via the pipelines is fixed costs. For example, resources provided via the pipelines are typically sold at a fixed cost per unit of the resource for a term of time according to a contract. In an aspect, the electronic device 120 may predict the OpEx for the proposed configuration and the alternative configuration. For example, and with reference to
The electronic device 120 may estimate a time frame for upgrading the methanol production facility from the alternative configuration to the proposed configuration. For example, although providing a lower CapEx cost during construction of the methanol production facility, at some point the operator may desire to reduce the OpEx associated with the alternative configuration by upgrading the methanol production facility to include one or more of the components of the proposed configuration that were omitted from the alternate configuration. This may include construction of an air separation component or a PSA component, or both. This may provide additional benefits to the operator of the methanol production facility. For example, the air separation component may include a plurality of sub-components that each generate a quantity of oxygen, and more sub-components would cause the air separation component as a whole to generate more oxygen while less sub-components would cause the air separation component to produce less oxygen. Thus, for scalable components, such as the air separation component, the operator may incrementally add sub-components to increase the amount of the resource generated at the methanol production facility, thereby proportionately reducing the amount of the resource purchased from one of the pipelines. The electronic device 120 may determine a schedule for adding each of the one or more components omitted from the alternative configuration, and may further determine whether the components should be incrementally upgraded and provide a recommendation as to a time table for such upgrades.
When one of the components omitted from the alternative configuration of the methanol production facility is a scalable component including a plurality of sub-components, the electronic device 120 may determine whether to add all of the plurality of sub-components included in the scalable component at once, or to upgrade the scalable component incrementally (e.g., adding one or more sub-components of the plurality of sub-components at a time). Upgrading the scalable component incrementally includes adding a first sub-component of the plurality of sub-components at a first time and adding a second sub-component of the plurality of sub-components at second time subsequent to the first time. In response to a determination to upgrade the scalable component incrementally, the electronic device 120 may generate a time table for incrementally upgrading the scalable component during the period of time. The time table may be included in the schedule. Additionally, an estimated OpEx associated with the scalable component may decrease as the scalable component is added according to the schedule (e.g., as the scalable component produces more of a resource with each sub-component addition thereby reducing pipeline resource utilization). The OpEx associated with the alternative configuration of the methanol production facility may account for changes in the estimated OpEx associated with adding the scalable component according to the time table.
As the components are subsequently constructed and/or incrementally upgraded at the methanol production facility, the amount of resources purchased from the pipelines may be reduced or eliminated. For example, after a number of years of operation, as proposed by the electronic device 120, the operator of the methanol production facility may construct an air separation component operable to generate fifty percent (50%) of the oxygen required for the methanol production facility. The pipelines may provide the remaining fifty percent (50%).
Furthermore, if one of the components, such as the air separation component, fails or otherwise needs to be turned off (e.g., for repairs or cleaning), the methanol production facility may remain operational by increasing an amount of a resource received via the pipeline and receiving the required resources from the pipeline. Thus, it can be seen that connecting the methanol production facility to the pipelines may increase the operational reliability of the methanol production facility. It may also increase the safety of operating the methanol production facility, as shutting down and/or starting up the methanol production facility is considered by many to be one of the riskiest aspects of operating the methanol production facility. In an aspect, the electronic device 120 may be operable to predict an amount of time that the methanol production facility will be down (e.g., due to failed components that produce the resources required to produce methanol) when configured according to the proposed configuration (e.g., without connections to the pipelines) and an amount of time that the methanol production facility will be down when configured according to the alternative configuration (e.g., with connections to the pipelines), and, based on this information, the electronic device 120 may estimate difference between an amount of methanol produced by the methanol production facility using the proposed configuration and the alternative configuration. The electronic device 120 may also generate a risk analysis based on a predicted number of times that the methanol production facility will be turned on and off over a period of time when constructed using the proposed configuration.
In some aspects, the electronic device 120 may provide scheduling information for upgrading the methanol production facility to be self-sufficient (e.g., all resources provided by the components of the methanol production facility). For example, the electronic device 120 may generate information indicating that after 3 years of operating the methanol production facility according to the alternate configuration, an air separation component including one or more sub-components may be constructed. With this new configuration, the amount of resources provided by the pipelines may be reduced. In some aspects, the upgrading of the components may result in the components producing slightly more resources than are required for producing methanol at the methanol production facility. For example, an air separation component including a first number of sub-components may not provide one hundred percent (100%) of the oxygen required by the methanol production facility, but adding an additional sub-component may cause the air separation component to generate one hundred and five percent (105%) of the oxygen required by the methanol production facility. The additional five percent (5%) of the oxygen may be routed to the oxygen pipeline where it may be sold. The electronic device 120 may determine whether adding or upgrading the components of the methanol production facility according to the scheduling information will result in production of excess resources (e.g., oxygen, hydrogen, power, etc.), and may estimate an amount of revenue that may be received by the operator of the methanol production facility from the sale of the excess resources.
In an aspect, the methanol production facility, when configured according to the alternative configuration, may produce at least a same amount of methanol per unit of feedstock as the methanol production facility when configured according to the proposed configuration. In additional or alternative aspects, the methanol production facility, when configured according to the alternative configuration, produces a greater amount of methanol per unit of feedstock than an amount of methanol per unit of feedstock produced by the methanol production facility when configured according to the proposed configuration. For example, the proposed configuration may include a component that consumes a portion of each unit of feedstock to generate heat for transforming a remaining portion of the feedstock into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. When that component is omitted from the alternative configuration, the entirety of each unit of feedstock may be transformed into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Thus, according to some aspects, the alternative configuration may generate a greater amount of methanol per unit of feedstock than the proposed configuration.
In some aspects, constructing the methanol production facility according to an alternative configuration may expedite production of methanol relative to the proposed configuration. For example, some governmental regulations require an operator of a facility, such as methanol production facility, to obtain a permit when carbon dioxide emissions of the facility exceed a threshold amount. The carbon dioxide emissions of a methanol production facility configured according to an alternative configuration determined by the device 120 may be reduced to below the threshold level, enabling an operator of the methanol production facility to bypass the permitting process, which could take a year or longer to complete. Thus, an extra year of methanol production may be gained by configuring the methanol production facility according to the alternative configuration.
In an aspect, the electronic device 120 may determine whether a size of a reforming component (e.g., the reforming component 220 of
In response to a determination that the estimated amount carbon dioxide emissions for the methanol production facility according to the proposed configuration exceed the threshold level, the electronic device 120 may determine whether the identified resources accessible to the methanol production facility include carbon dioxide (e.g., the carbon dioxide pipeline 222 of
In an aspect, the electronic device 120 may determine a first amount of carbon dioxide emissions based on the proposed configuration for the methanol production facility, and determine a second amount of carbon dioxide emissions based on the alternative configuration for the methanol production facility. The second amount of carbon dioxide emissions may be lower than the first amount of carbon dioxide emissions. The report 104 may include information representative of the first amount of carbon dioxide emissions and the second amount of carbon dioxide emissions. In an additional or alternative aspect, the electronic device 120 may determine a first amount of carbon credits based on the first amount of carbon dioxide emissions, and determine a second amount of carbon credits based on the second amount of carbon dioxide emissions. The electronic device 120 may determine a difference between the first amount of carbon credits and the second amount of carbon credits, and may offset the OpEx associated with the alternative configuration based on the difference between the first amount of carbon credits and the second amount of carbon credits. If there is an excess amount carbon credits, the operator of the methanol production facility may sell the excess carbon credits. Thus, the alternative configuration may enable the operator to recoup the costs of constructing the methanol production facility more quickly, and may increase the internal rate of return (IRR) for the methanol production facility.
In an aspect, the electronic device 120 may identify one or more alternative locations (e.g., locations other than the proposed location) for the methanol production facility. The alternative locations may be determined based on an analysis of the geographic data 144 and the pipeline data 146. For example, the electronic device 120 may identify one or more alternative locations where a greater number of the resources are accessible relative to the proposed location. Stated another way, each of the alternative locations may be accessible to a greater number of resources utilized in the production of methanol than the proposed location. The resources accessible to the one or more alternative locations may include resources required for production of methanol, such as a feedstock source (e.g., the feedstock 202 of
To illustrate, and referring to
In
In an aspect, the proposed location 320 and the first alternative location 330 may each be within a threshold distance of a methanol pipeline, however the cost of constructing the infrastructure to access the respective methanol pipelines may be greater than the cost of the infrastructure to access the methanol pipeline indicated at 348. As will be appreciated, constructing the methanol production facility at the proposed location 320 according to the proposed configuration may require the highest CapEx. However, constructing the methanol production facility at the proposed location 320 according to an alternative location (e.g., without a power generation component, or with a power generation component that produces less power than in the proposed configuration), while resulting in a slightly lower CapEx using the proposed configuration, may not provide a significant enough reduction in CapEx to substantiate construction of the methanol production facility or construction of the methanol production facility according to the alternative configuration.
Constructing the methanol production facility at the first alternative location 330 according to a second alternative configuration (e.g., by omitting the air separation component and the PSA component, and receiving at least a portion of the operational power for the methanol production facility from the power pipeline) may result in a significant decrease in the CapEx, which may make construction of the methanol production facility more affordable. Furthermore, constructing the methanol production facility at the second alternative location 340 may result in an even more significant decrease in CapEx (e.g., by omitting the air separation component and the PSA component, and by receiving at least a portion of the operational power for the methanol production facility from the power pipeline, and by having a lower infrastructure cost for accessing the methanol pipeline). Thus, an electronic device (e.g., the electronic device 120 of
In an aspect, the electronic device 120 may generate a map illustrating the proposed location and the one or more identified alternative locations for the methanol production facility and may identify geographic coordinates/boundaries for the methanol production facility. The map may also identify the resources available to each of the locations and may indicate, for each of the locations, a length of a shortest pipeline to each available resource, and a direction from each of the locations to the nearest available resource pipeline. The map may further indicate whether pipelines for any of the locations require boosters to provide adequate delivery pressure for the resources provided by the pipelines. In an additional or alternative aspect, the electronic device 120 may determine the alternative locations for the methanol production facility by locating alternative sources for feedstock for the methanol production facility, or by determining whether an alternative source for feedstock is accessible from a proposed location for the methanol production facility.
Referring back to
In an aspect, the request 102 may identify a threshold IRR, and the electronic device 120 may iteratively determine different alternative configurations to identify an alternative configuration that satisfies the threshold IRR. The electronic device 120 may first determine whether different alternative configurations at the proposed location satisfy the threshold IRR. If the electronic device 120 fails to identify an alternative configuration satisfying the threshold IRR at the proposed location, the electronic device 120 may identify one or more alternative locations, as described above, and determine whether an alternative configuration satisfying the threshold IRR at one or more of the alternative locations can be identified. In an aspect, the electronic device 120 may identify the alternative locations prior irrespective of whether an alternative configuration satisfies the threshold IRR and may determine a location (e.g., the proposed location or one of the alternative locations) provides a highest IRR satisfying the threshold.
The electronic device 120 may be configured to estimate, for each determined configuration, a cost corresponding to an amount of CapEx required to construct the methanol production facility using a particular determined configuration, and may estimate, for each determined configuration, a cost corresponding to an amount of OpEx for operating the methanol production facility when configured according to each of the determined configurations. In an aspect, the CapEx and the OpEx may be estimated over a period of time. For example, the electronic device 120 may estimate CapEx and OpEx during each of a plurality of years. For the proposed configuration, a substantial majority of CapEx may be experienced during construction of the methanol production facility, which may take a year or more, whereas CapEx for the alternative configurations may be spread out over a number of years due to upgrading of the methanol production facility. The OpEx for the proposed configuration may remain relatively constant during the plurality of years, and the OpEx for the alternative configurations may begin higher than the OpEx for the proposed configuration and then incrementally converge with the OpEx for the proposed configuration during the plurality of years as the methanol plant is upgraded. The electronic device 120 may also be configured to calculate an IRR for each of the configurations of the methanol production facility.
Many of the costs associated with the OpEx fluctuate on the daily market. For example, the price of natural gas, which may be used as the feedstock for the methanol production facility, fluctuates frequently (e.g., daily/hourly). In some configurations, the cost of the feedstock may account for between eighty percent (80%) and ninety percent (90%) of the OpEx for the methanol production facility. Because the costs associated with the feedstock fluctuate frequently, the OpEx may also fluctuate frequently, leading to uncertainty of the OpEx for the methanol production facility, especially when feedstock is consumed by the reforming component to generate heat. One or more aspects of the present disclosure provide for determining alternative configurations of the methanol production facility that have a reduced amount of fluctuation in OpEx. This is because resources provide by pipelines are typically provided based on a contract price that is fixed for a period of time (e.g., a number of years, months, etc.). Transforming fluctuating costs that affect OpEx into fixed costs by using resources provided by pipelines according to an alternative configuration determined by the electronic device 120 may reduce fluctuation of OpEx for the methanol production facility during the period of time, and may increase an accuracy of estimates of the OpEx of the methanol production facility during the period of time. Other examples of resources having costs that affect the OpEx include water costs (e.g., water used to generate steam and for cooling purposes), power costs, and fuel costs (if feedstock is not used to generate heat at the reforming component).
The electronic device 120 may be configured to generate a report 104 and to send the report 104 to the client device 110 or store the report 104 at the database 140. The report 104 may include all or a portion of the information described above. For example, the report 104 may include information representative of the CapEx and OpEx for each of the proposed configurations, and information representative of a difference between the CapEx and the OpEx of the proposed configuration relative to the CapEx and the OpEx of each of the alternative configuration. Additionally, the report may identify the components from the proposed configuration that have been omitted in each of the alternative configurations. The report may include information indicating the alternative locations for the methanol production facility, and may include information indicating how soon production of methanol could begin if the methanol production facility is constructed according to each of the configurations. Other information determined by the electronic device 120, as described elsewhere herein, may also be included in the report 104, such as the scheduling information, the risk analysis information, the map information, carbon dioxide emissions information, etc.
Additionally, it is noted that, although the operations described above are based on information included in the request 102 received from the client device 110 via the network 150, other methods of receiving the information indicating the proposed configuration of the methanol production facility may be used. For example, the information may be provided to the electronic device 120 using the I/O device 128, as indicated by the request 106.
The report 104, whether generated in response to the request 102 or the request 106, may enable an entity to better evaluate the financial risk associated with construction of a methanol production facility, and to reduce the financial risk by constructing the methanol production facility according to the alternative configuration. Additionally, as explained above, constructing the methanol production facility according to the alternative configuration may increase the operational reliability and the safety of the methanol production facility. Constructing the methanol production facility according to the alternative configuration may also reduce carbon dioxide emissions of the methanol production facility and other locations (e.g., locations providing carbon dioxide to the carbon dioxide pipeline), as described above. Further, it is noted that, although described with reference to construction of a methanol production facility, the operations of the system 100 may readily be adapted for other types of refineries (e.g., gasoline refineries) or facilities that utilize resources that may be generated by components of a facility or by pipelines.
It is further noted that, although
In such alternative configurations, the third party incurs the costs for constructing the air separation component and/or the pressure swing absorption component. Additionally, because the air separation component and/or the pressure swing absorption component are located at or next to the methanol production facility, the pipelines to access the resources generated by the by the air separation component and/or the pressure swing absorption component may be significantly shorter than pipelines constructed to access resources provided by pipelines in remote locations (e.g., locations that are not at or next to the methanol production facility). Thus, in some alternative configurations, the CapEx associated with constructing the methanol production facility may be reduced by a greater amount by utilizing pipelines to third party components located at or next to the methanol production facility instead of pipelines to access resources provided by pipelines in remote locations (e.g., because of lower infrastructure costs for constructing the shorter pipelines).
However, alternative configurations utilizing pipelines to third party components located at or next to the methanol production facility may not provide all of the advantages provided by using pipelines to access resources provided in remote locations. For example, because the output (e.g. oxygen) of the air separation component located at or next to the location of the methanol production facility is considered the pipeline, if the air separation component is shut down for repairs, maintenance, etc., the pipeline and the methanol production facility are also shut down. Thus, the increased operational reliability described above may be lost when the pipelines providing the resources to the methanol production facility are provided from outputs of on-site components operated by a third party. As another example, the components operated by the third party may generate carbon dioxide emissions, which may increase a carbon footprint of the methanol production facility and may affect a size of the reforming component that may be used, or reduce a number of carbon credits received by the operator of the methanol production facility.
In an aspect, the third party may be an operator of the electronic device 120. In an additional or alternative aspect, the third party may be entity that is distinct from the operator of the electronic device 120. In additional or alternative aspects, the alternative configurations determined by the electronic device 120 may include pipelines carrying resources generated by on-site components operated by the third party, and pipelines carrying resources generated by components remote from the location of the methanol production facility. Thus, the electronic device 120 provides a robust platform for determining a configuration of a methanol production facility that provides a reduced CapEx and that may reduce a carbon footprint of the methanol production facility. Additional exemplary aspects of various alternative configurations of a methanol production facility are described below with reference to
Referring to
As shown in
At 470, the method 400 includes generating a report based on the proposed configuration and the alternative configuration. In an aspect, the report may be the report 104 of
Referring to
As additionally shown in
Referring to
Additionally, the first alternative configuration differs from the proposed configuration in that at least a portion of the fuel provided to the fired heater may be offgas generated by the PSA component 260. Thus, in some aspects, all or a portion of the feedstock provided to the fired heater may be used for methanol production, rather than as fuel for the operation of the fired heater 530. This may reduce an amount of fluctuation in the OpEx caused by the market price of the feedstock, which may fluctuate daily/hourly. Further aspects illustrating the decreased CapEx and increased OpEx provided by the first alternative configuration are described with reference to
Referring to
As described above, by importing oxygen and hydrogen from pipelines (e.g., pipelines providing access to resources from remote locations or from components located at or next to the methanol production facility), the CapEx for constructing the methanol production facility may be reduce significantly while the OpEx for operating the methanol production facility may be slightly increased. Further aspects illustrating the decreased CapEx and increased OpEx provided by the first alternative configuration are described with reference to
Referring to
As indicated in Table 1 of
Because the first liquid effluent requires treatment, an OpEx associated with the first liquid effluent may be higher than an OpEx associated with the second liquid effluent. Additionally, the OpEx associated with treating the liquid effluent that requires treatment may be the same for the proposed configuration and the first alternative configuration, and may be lower for the second alternative configuration due to the lower volume of liquid effluent that requires treatment. Further, because the second liquid effluent does not require treatment, the OpEx associated with the second liquid effluent may be lower than the OpEx associated with the first liquid effluent.
Each of the configurations may receive a feedstock (e.g., a hydrocarbon feedstock such as natural gas) that is to be used to generate the methanol. The proposed configuration and the first alternative configuration may have a feedstock flow of 154,000 NM3/hr, and the second alternative configuration may have a feedstock flow of 161,000 NM3/hr. Thus, OpEx associated with the feedstock may be the same for the proposed configuration and the first alternative configuration, and is lower than an OpEx associated with the feedstock for the second alternative configuration. Each of the configurations may receive fuel that is used to operate a fired heater (e.g., the fired heater 530 of
As shown in
In the proposed configuration, the oxygen used to produce the methanol may be produced by an on-site air separation unit (e.g., the air separation unit 280 of
Some of the configurations may generate excess hydrogen. For example, as shown in
As illustrated in
As shown in
Referring to
It can be seen from Table 2 that the first alternative configuration has an OpEx difference relative to the proposed configuration of $1,058/hr, and the second alternative configuration has an OpEx difference relative to the proposed configuration of $1,827/hr. Stated another way, and as shown in Table 2, the first alternative configuration increases OpEx by 3% relative to the proposed configuration, and the second alternative configuration increases OpEx 5% relative to the proposed configuration (as shown in the last row of Table 2).
Referring to
As further shown in Table 3, the cost to produce the methanol for the proposed configuration is $275/mt, the cost to produce the methanol for the proposed configuration is $235/mt, and the cost to produce the methanol for the proposed configuration is $250/mt. Thus, relative to the proposed configuration, the cost to produce the methanol is reduced for the first configuration and for the second configuration. As illustrated in Table 3 of
It is appreciated that the illustrative aspects described herein may be implemented separately or in combination. Additionally, it is noted that one or more steps in the exemplary method illustrated in
Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the present disclosure may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software (e.g., the instructions 130 of
Additionally, the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the present disclosure may be implemented or performed with a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.
Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.
The present invention may suitably comprise, consist or consist essentially of the elements disclosed and may be practiced in the absence of an element not disclosed. Furthermore, if there is language referring to order, such as first and second, it should be understood in an exemplary sense and not in a limiting sense. For example, it can be recognized by those skilled in the art that certain steps can be combined into a single step.
The singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” include plural referents, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
“Comprising” in a claim is an open transitional term which means the subsequently identified claim elements are a nonexclusive listing (i.e., anything else may be additionally included and remain within the scope of “comprising”). “Comprising” as used herein may be replaced by the more limited transitional terms “consisting essentially of” and “consisting of” unless otherwise indicated herein.
“Providing” in a claim is defined to mean furnishing, supplying, making available, or preparing something. The step may be performed by any actor in the absence of express language in the claim to the contrary a range is expressed, it is to be understood that another embodiment is from the one.
Optional or optionally means that the subsequently described event or circumstances may or may not occur. The description includes instances where the event or circumstance occurs and instances where it does not occur.
Ranges may be expressed herein as from about one particular value, and/or to about another particular value. When such particular value and/or to the other particular value, along with all combinations within said range.
All references identified herein are each hereby incorporated by reference into this application in their entireties, as well as for the specific information for which each is cited.
