Generating methanol using ultrapure, high pressure hydrogen

A system for producing methanol, comprising:

• a first compressor driven by a gas turbine including an inlet connected to a conduit for a feed air stream and an outlet connected to an air separation unit;
• an air separation plant that produces oxygen and connected to an oxygen heater;
• an oxygen heater configured to heat the produced oxygen and connected to a partial oxidation reactor (POX) or an autothermal reforming reactor (ATR);
• a second compressor driven by a gas turbine including an inlet connected to a hydrocarbon feed stream and an outlet connected to a fired heater;
• the fired heater that heats the hydrocarbon feed stream using exhaust from the gas turbine;
• the POX or the ATR that exothermically reacts a first portion of the heated hydrocarbon feed stream with at least one of steam or an oxidant gas comprising molecular oxygen to produce an exothermically generated syngas product;
• a gas-heated catalytic reformer (GHR) that endothermically reforms a second portion of the hydrocarbon feed stream with steam over a catalyst in a heat exchange reformer to produce an endothermically-reformed syngas product and combines the exothermically generated syngas product and the endothermically-reformed syngas product to produce a combined syngas stream, wherein at least a portion of heat used in generation of the endothermically-reformed syngas product is obtained by recovering heat from the exothermically-generated syngas product and the endothermically reformed syngas product;
• a waste heat boiler that produces steam in a waste heat boiler by cooling the combined syngas stream, where the combined syngas stream leaving the waste heat boiler has a pressure from 70 bar to 100 bar;
• separation unit that separates water from the cooled combined syngas to produce a methanol plant feed at substantially reaction loop pressure and having less than about 2% CH4 and less than about 0.2% H2O;
• after separating water, a first conduit that passes the cooled combined syngas to a methanol plant;
• and
• a second conduit that combines methanol plant combustible effluent with methane fuel to the gas turbine.