Olefin Production via Methanol Integrated with Light Hydrocarbon Conversion: Novel Process Designs, Techno-Economic Analysis, and Environmental Analysis

Olefin production via methanol from different resources is a promising technology, which has been widely studied. However, there are many hydrocarbons produced in methanol to olefins except ethylene and propylene which are of high values. This work proposes four novel designs by integrating olefin production via methanol with a light hydrocarbon conversion unit to increase the yield of ethylene and propylene. Based on the data of mass and energy balances from Aspen HYSYS, the four novel designs are systematically compared to their profitability and sustainability from the techno-economic and environmental aspects. The results present that the yield of ethylene and propylene is improved significantly; almost all the hydrocarbon byproducts are converted into ethylene and propylene. In addition, the result of techno-economic analysis shows that producing ethylene and propylene from the coal-based design is the most attractive design among the five designs, about 113.16% as much as that of the conventional design. The environmental analysis indicates that the life cycle greenhouse gas emission of producing ethylene and propylene from the biomass-based design, which has the best environmental performance, is only 49.46% of that from the conventional design.