Method for producing bio-methanol at pulp mills
AssigneeFPInnovations
InventorsNaceur Jemaa, Michael Paleologou
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Abstract
The present invention describes a process and system of producing methanol from methanol condensates. In a preferred embodiment the condensates are biomethanol condensates from chemical pulp mills and various waste sources used to produce a purified biomethanol. Pulp condensates are rich in methanol and contain many other contaminants. Presently, most chemical pulp mills, such as Kraft pulp mills use steam stripping to remove and concentrate the methanol and burn the methanol onsite along with the contaminants. A combination of treatments that include air stripping, steam stripping, distillation and reverse osmosis is described to obtain purified biomethanol suitable for sale or use on site.
Claims17
A process for producing a purified methanol comprising:
- pretreating a methanol-containing condensate to produce a pretreated condensate;
- polishing the pretreated condensate by reverse osmosis to produce the purified methanol, and
- further polishing the polished methanol in a second polishing step to produce the purified methanol with activated carbon.
A system for producing a purified methanol from a pretreated methanol condensate comprising contaminants, the system comprising the improvement of:
- a reverse osmosis unit polishing the methanol condensate to produce the purified methanol, and
- an activated carbon unit.
A system for producing a purified methanol from a methanol containing condensate comprising contaminants and turpentine, the system comprising:
- a steam stripper producing a stripper off gas;
- a condenser condensing the stripper off gas;
- a decanter separating the SOG condensate into a turpentine stream and a methanol rich stream;
- a distillation system converting the methanol rich stream to a pretreated methanol;
- a reverse osmosis unit converting the pretreated methanol to the purified methanol, and
- an activated carbon until, converting the methanol to the purified methanol.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.