Commercial-Scale Demonstration of the Liquid Phase methanol (LPMEOH) Process A DOE Assessment

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Clean Coal Technology (CCT) Program seeks to offer the energy marketplace more efficient and environmentally benign coal utilization technology options by demonstrating them in industrial settings. This document is a DOE post-project assessment (PPA) of one of the projects selected in Round III of the CCT Program, the commercial-scale demonstration of the Liquid Phase Methanol (LPMEOH{trademark}) Process, initially described in a Report to Congress by DOE in 1992. Methanol is an important, large-volume chemical with many uses. The desire to demonstrate a new process for the production of methanol from coal, prompted Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Air Products) to submit a proposal to DOE. In October 1992, DOE awarded a cooperative agreement to Air Products to conduct this project. In March 1995, this cooperative agreement was transferred to Air Products Liquid Phase Conversion Company, L.P. (the Partnership), a partnership between Air Products and Eastman Chemical Company (Eastman). DOE provided 43 percent of the total project funding of $213.7 million. Operation of the LPMEOH Demonstration Unit, which is sited at Eastman's chemicals-from-coal complex in Kingsport, Tennessee, commenced in April 1997. Although operation of the CCT project was completed in December 2002, Eastman continues to operate the LPMEOH Demonstration Unit for the production of methanol. The independent evaluation contained herein is based primarily on information from Volume 2 of the project's Final Report (Air Products Liquid Phase Conversion Co., L.P. 2003), as well as other references cited