FIELD: chemistry.
SUBSTANCE: method includes producing oxygen in an air separation plant with air compressors driven by a gas turbine; heating a hydrocarbon feed stream using exhaust gas from the gas turbine; exothermically reacting a first portion of the heated hydrocarbon feed stream with steam or an oxidant gas comprising molecular oxygen to produce exothermically generated syngas; endothermically reforming a second portion of the hydrocarbon feed stream with steam over a catalyst in a heat exchange reformer to produce endothermically-reformed syngas, wherein a portion of heat used in the production of the endothermically-reformed syngas is obtained by recovering heat from the exothermically-generated syngas and the endothermically reformed syngas; combining the exothermically generated syngas and the endothermically-reformed syngas to produce a combined syngas stream; producing steam in a waste heat boiler by cooling the combined syngas stream; separating water from the cooled combined syngas to produce a methanol plant feed; after separating water, passing the cooled combined syngas to a methanol plant; and combining methanol plant combustible effluent with methane fuel in the gas turbine.
EFFECT: efficient methanol production.
11 cl, 5 dwg
