Alireza Jalali, a faculty member of the Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering of Tehran University, stated that by modifying the burners and
installing new burners, the cost of natural gas consumption in Marjan
Petrochemical Plant has decreased by IRR 250 billion per month, and stated: “Methanol
production is a petrochemical item that is obtained from natural gas by
performing successive chemical reactions.”
He explained: “Methanol production reactions from natural gas are
endothermic, and the heat of these reactions is carried out in furnaces and
with the combustion of fuels available on site using different oxidants,
including ambient air, inside burners.”
Considering the importance of providing heat and accurate control of
heat in different parts of reactors, burners are one of the main tools in
advancing the goals of chemical units, he added.
In the methanol petrochemical unit, the quality of natural gas
conversion is directly dependent on the temperature inside the chamber and its
proper distribution throughout the furnace space.
Jalali said during the first step in a research project commissioned
by Marjan Petrochemical Company and by faculty members of the Mechanical
Engineering Faculty of Tehran University, the burners of the primary furnace
for methanol production were redesigned.
He considered the purpose of this redesign to change the structure of
the existing burners in such a way that the excess gases of the process, which
normally enter the atmosphere as pollutants, are returned to the burner and
used as fuel.