Systems and methods for manufacture of methanol from natural gas and flare gas feedstock

US9637433B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Pioneer Energy · US

Inventors

• Robert M. Zubrin · Indian Hills, US
• Boris Nizamov · Highlands Ranch, US
• Thomas Lee Henshaw · Monument, US
• Adam M Kortan · Arvada, US
• James Siebarth · Lakewood, US
• Colin Apke · Castle Rock, US
• Mark Berggren · Golden, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 13, 2016
• Grant date: May 2, 2017
• Expiry date: Feb 13, 2036

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02T10/30
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A mobile system and method that reform flare gas, methane, or natural gas, using air without steam, to directly produce methanol, a clean burning gasoline blend, component, and/or substitute are disclosed. The system first reforms the air-methane mixture at ambient atmospheric pressure, then compresses the resulting CO-hydrogen-nitrogen gas mixture to 600 psi, and feeds it through a methanol reactor which reacts the gas mixture directly into methanol. The nitrogen is returned by the system back to the atmosphere. Methanol is a clean burning gasoline substitute, and can be used to displace significantly costlier and dirtier petroleum-based fuel, while solving a critical problem with flaring. For example, the over 120 billion cubic feet per year that was flared in North Dakota in 2014 could be converted into over 6 million tons of methanol.