Process modeling, simulation and thermodynamic analysis of a novel process integrating coal gasification, smelting reduction and methanol synthesis for ironmaking and methanol co-production

Abstract

A novel process integrating coal gasification, smelting reduction, and methanol synthesis process has been proposed and designed to produce both high-quality hot metal and methanol. This process comprises eight key units: Coal Gasification Pre-reduction, Smelting Reduction, Water Gas Shift, Acid Gas Removal, CO₂ Compression and Storage, Gas and Steam Turbine, Methanol Synthesis, and Distillation. The innovative aspect of this process lies in the partial recycling of H₂ rich clean syngas which is generated from the WGS and AGR stages. Key operational parameters based on the feed of coal is 100 tones/h, such as the ore/coal ratio, oxygen/coal ratio, circulation ratio (CR), and oxygen replenishment (OR) were optimized at values of 1.4, 0.8, 0.5, and 10 tons/h, respectively, enabling the co-production of 100 tons of hot metal and 55 tons of methanol. Thermodynamic analysis indicates that the energy consumption, energy efficiency, and exergy efficiency of the CGSRMS system per unit of product (1 t-Fe and 0.55 t-CH₃OH) are 10.47 GJ, 73.06 %, and 72.12 %, respectively. CO₂ emissions are significantly reduced to 0.91 t/h per unit of product, representing a 51.81 % decrease compared to conventional processes with same production outputs.