The head of PRTC's engineering, development and
research processes group, Mehran Daneshvar, said that methanol producers should
move towards completing the value chain of this important product and that
without a methanol chain, a good future for these companies cannot be imagined.
He also said that the world is moving towards
producing methanol from renewable sources and that it is expected that by 2050,
carbon neutrality will be achieved.
Daneshvar said that the production of methanol
from fossil fuels is expected to increase from 100 million tons in 2020 to 115
million tons in 2050, while in the same year 250 million tons of green methanol
will be produced.
He added that it took at least 20 years for the
value chain of methanol to become clear in Iran, but statistics show that
methanol still has a significant share of the petrochemical products market.
He also pointed out that Iran has a four percent
share of the global methanol market, with a large number of producers around
the world.
"The global methanol industry is moving from
gray methanol production (using coal) to blue and green methanol production (no
CO2 emissions)," he said.
He continued: "The demand for methanol in
the global market is increasing day by day; currently methanol is produced in
China using coal and in Iran using natural gas, but the world is moving towards
producing methanol using new technologies and producing blue methanol and green
methanol are raised; it may even be difficult to sell methanol produced from
fossil fuels in the future and there may be no demand for it."
Daneshvar also said that the highest demand in
the field of methanol is for formaldehyde and that until 2020, the growth of
the process of converting methanol to olefins was higher than other processes.
He also said that green methanol production uses
renewable CO2 and as a result Bio-methanol, Bio- e-methanol and E-methanol are
produced. Bio-methanol can be produced from Biomass and Renewable natural gas
and E-methanol can be produced from Renewable Electrolysis.
Daneshvar also stressed that China, which has a
lot of methanol production, has planned more than anyone else for producing
green and renewable methanol, followed by countries such as Denmark, Germany,
America and Canada.
Continuation of indigenization of Petchem
industry catalysts
Fereydoun Yaripour, head of PRTC's catalyst
research group, said on Friday at the specialized meeting on "Reviewing
the achievements of Petrochemical Research and Technology Company, Methanol
Chain and Catalyst Document" that 15 catalyst manufacturers are active in
Iran and that all six catalysts used in the field of methanol have been
indigenized.
He explained the catalyst document and said:
"We have indigenized 78 catalysts specific to the petrochemical industry,
11 catalysts common with refining and distribution, three catalysts specific to
refining and gas and seven cases of absorbents, catalyst base and resin."
He added that indigenizing a large part of the
catalysts, absorbents and initiators listed in the country's oil industry
catalyst document was on the agenda and that the number of catalysts increased
from 13 cases in 2011 to 94 cases in 2022.
He also stressed that catalyst developers and
manufacturers should constantly plan to modify, upgrade and optimize their
production formulation and move towards making changes in formulation to
improve and increase process performance.
Yaripour also emphasized that catalyst producers should
have a serious look at exporting their products, and said: "Catalyst
manufacturers should take serious steps towards fully domesticating and 100
percent practical operations for producing catalysts along the way. Supply all
production line requirements such as base construction, supply of raw materials
from domestic sources."
Yaripour also mentioned the development of the mix
of products produced by saying: "A review of the mix of products produced
by catalyst manufacturers shows that many of these companies have focused their
activities mainly on oil-consuming catalysts. In some cases it causes false
competition between companies."
He also said that today there are five
non-indigenous catalysts that are being indigenized, and said: "The
indigenized catalysts have a value of $11.419 billion and the value of
non-indigenous catalysts is about $10 million."
The head of PRTC's catalyst research group also
said that consumers of catalysts, knowledge developers and knowledge providers
have all joined hands to indigenize catalysts and said: "36,000 and 708
tons per year of catalysts, absorbents and initiators are consumed. In 2011, 13
catalysts were indigenized and 83 were not yet indigenized but today only five
catalysts remain for indigenization."
Yaripour also referred to companies contracted
with Petrochemical Research and Technology Company such as Khwarizmi Technology
Development Company, Gohar Seram Company, Novin Process Asia Elixir Company,
Lorestan Petrochemical Company, Shazand Petrochemical Company, Bakhtar Puya
Research, Arya Ofogh Fiar, Behdash Chemical Industries Co. and Sarv Oil And Gas
Industries Development Company.