World’s largest ATR-based methanol plant has been put into successful operation

• Based on Topsoe’s SynCOR Methanol™ solution, the plant has a methanol production capacity of 5225 tons per day (MTPD).
• Since the startup in June, methanol production has progressed as planned and all performance targets have been met.

Recently, Topsoe announced the official opening of the world’s only natural gas-to-gasoline complex in Turkmenistan. The complex includes the world’s largest methanol plant based on autothermal reforming (ATR), using Topsoe’s SynCOR Methanol™ solution, with methanol production capacity of 5225 MTPD.

In the Turkmen gas-to-gasoline complex, the SynCOR Methanol™ solution has been combined with a gasoline synthesis loop to produce synthetic gasoline. This concept is named SynCOR TIGAS™.

Over the last two years Topsoe has signed five license agreements of similar capacity based on the SynCOR™ technology. These projects are in various stages of development.

Global demand for methanol is increasing. Accordingly, investors and producers plan for larger plants with improved energy efficiency to achieve economy of scale. This has made SynCOR™ the preferred technology for production of synthesis gas in many of today’s world-scale projects because it maximizes single-line capacity while significantly reducing capital as well as operating costs. When combined with a Topsoe methanol synthesis loop, the result is SynCOR Methanol™, the most cost-efficient large-scale methanol technology in industrial operation today. Capacities can be up to 10,000 tons per day of methanol.

Apart from the obvious financial benefits of the SynCOR™ technology, it also offers considerable environmental advantages, leaving a smaller CO₂ footprint and lower water consumption compared to traditional licensed technologies.

Based on 70 years of experience within synthesis gas, all SynCOR™ solutions offer more than 99% availability and unsurpassed economy of scale. SynCOR™ solutions are suitable for large-scale grassroots ammonia, methanol, hydrogen, CO, TIGAS™, and gas-to-liquid (GTL) plants, as well as syngas hubs producing multiple products.