Co-Production of Olefins, Fuels, and Electricity from Conventional Pipeline Gas and Shale Gas with Near-Zero CO2 Emissions. Part I: Process Development and Technical Performance.

A novel polygeneration process is presented in this paper that co-produces olefins, methanol, dimethyl ether, and electricity from conventional pipeline natural gas and different kinds of shale gases. Technical analyses of many variants of the process are performed, considering differences in power generation strategy and gas type. The technical analysis results show that the efficiency of the plant varies between 22%–57% (HHV) depending on the product portfolio. The efficiency is higher than a traditional methanol-to-olefin process, which enables it to be competitive with traditional naphtha cracking plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]