Gulf Coast methanol plant gets $2 billion loan

Abstract

A new firm called Lake Charles Methanol has received a $2 billion conditional loan commitment from the Department of Energy for a facility that will produce methanol by gasifying petroleum coke, a waste product from oil refining. The plant will capture and purify by-product carbon dioxide for use in enhanced oil recovery. Pending completion of financing, the $3.8 billion plant will be built in Lake Charles, La. and supplied with coke from nearby refiners. In addition to methanol and CO2 it will produce hydrogen, sulfuric acid, argon, krypton, and xenon. Although the plant will use existing technologies for its gasification and gas separation and purification units, it will be the first in the U.S. to make methanol from petroleum coke. In the U.S., methanol is most commonly made from natural gas; plants in China rely on coal gasification. The chemical industry has long known that petroleum coke could be used