International Journal of Advanced Engineering Application

Process Design, Reactor Optimisation, Catalyst Deactivation Kinetics and Techno-Economic Analysis of Continuous Methanol-to-Olefin Conversion for Indian Petrochemical Feedstock

Author(s):Girish Kulkarni, Sneha Desai

Affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela, Odisha, India

Page No: 47-50

Volume issue & Publishing Year: Volume 3, Issue 4, 2026/04/08

Journal: International Journal of Advanced Engineering Application (IJAEA)

ISSN NO: 3048-6807

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19479080

Download PDF Cite this article

Article Indexing:

Abstract:
The Methanol-to-Olefin (MTO) process — converting methanol derived from coal or natural gas to ethylene and propylene, the primary feedstocks of India's polyolefin and specialty chemical industries — has emerged as a strategically significant route for India to reduce its dependence on naphtha-based steam cracking, which consumes imported crude derivatives whose prices are subject to geopolitical volatility. India's current ethylene production capacity of approximately 8 Mt/yr, concentrated in integrated petrochemical complexes at Jamnagar, Dahej, Panipat, and Haldia, is projected to fall short of domestic polyethylene demand by 2028 unless capacity expansion proceeds at an accelerated pace that the MTO route could supplement at distributed scale close to methanol production centres in Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh's coal belt. This paper addresses the reactor engineering, thermodynamic analysis, and process economics of a 50 kt/yr ethylene-equivalent MTO facility using SAPO-34 silicoaluminophosphate molecular sieve catalyst. Reactor selection and sizing compares Plug Flow Reactor (PFR), Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR), and recycle PFR configurations for the MTO reaction network using Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) kinetics incorporating coke-induced catalyst deactivation. Distillation train design uses McCabe-Thiele graphical method and Aspen HYSYS rigorous column simulation for the methanol-dimethylether-water-ethylene-propylene separation sequence. CSTR multiplicity analysis identifies and avoids the high-temperature runaway steady state that poses a process safety risk in the exothermic MTO reaction. Economic analysis uses an ASPEN Economic Analyser-based CAPEX/OPEX model with Monte Carlo NPV simulation across methanol price scenarios.

Keywords: methanol-to-olefin, MTO, SAPO-34, reactor design, PFR, CSTR, McCabe-Thiele, catalyst deactivation, process engineering, techno-economic, India, ethylene, propylene

Reference:

• [1] Chen, D., et al. (2011). Methanol conversion to light olefins. Catalysis Reviews, 53(3), 207-268.
• [2] Desai, S., & Kulkarni, G. (2023). LHHW kinetics for MTO over SAPO-34. Chemical Engineering Journal, 454, 140212.
• [3] Fogler, H. S. (2016). Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering (5th ed.). Prentice Hall.
• [4] Honeywell UOP. (2022). MTO Technology: Commercial Experience. UOP LLC, Des Plaines, IL.
• [5] King, C. J. (1980). Separation Processes (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
• [6] Levenspiel, O. (1999). Chemical Reaction Engineering (3rd ed.). Wiley.
• [7] Olsbye, U., et al. (2012). Conversion of methanol to hydrocarbons: How zeolite cavity and pore size controls product selectivity. Angewandte Chemie, 51(24), 5810-5831.
• [8] Petersen, L., & Bjerring, A. (2022). Zeolite membrane reactors for MTO product separation. Journal of Membrane Science, 661, 120926.
• [9] Smit, B., & Maesen, T. L. M. (2008). Molecular simulations of zeolites. Chemical Reviews, 108(10), 4125-4184.
• [10] Turton, R., et al. (2018). Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes (5th ed.). Prentice Hall.