Methanol-to-hydrocarbons: process technology

This review presents methanol-to-hydrocarbons processes which have reached industrial applications, either on a commercial or on a pilot plant scale. The determination of kinetic expressions for various methanol conversion reactions is given. The processes discussed are: Mobil's methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) plant in New Zealand, the fluidized bed MTG and methanol-to-olefins process; Mobil's olefin-to-gasoline/distillate (MOGD) process; the MTO plant developed by UOP and Norsk Hydro; Haldor Topsoe's TIGAS process. The developments of a liquid phase dimethyl ether synthesis (LP-DME) process by the Ahron University are also presented. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.