Sabalan Petrochemical Company in Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province, a subsidiary of Sepehr Energy Holding Company, produced 700,000 tons of grade AA methanol in the last Iranian year (March 2022-23), and programs are underway to double the figure this year, the managing director of Sepehr Company said.
“According to the plans and with the help of the National Petrochemical Company in providing the feedstock needed by Sabalan, we intend to increase the production of methanol to about 1.4 million tons this year,” the Oil Ministry’s news service Shana also quoted Ali Yari as saying.
Grade AA purity is 99.85% methanol by weight and contains trace amounts of ethanol as well. Methanol for chemical use normally corresponds to Grade AA. In addition to water, typical impurities include acetone and ethanol (which are very difficult to separate by distillation).
In the petrochemical industry, methanol is used to create high-quality chemicals, the most important of which are formaldehyde, acetic acid, MTBE, methyl methacrylate, methyl chloride and methylamines, which are processed to produce other derivatives.
Up until 2007, methanol was used only as a chemical, but the completion of methanol value chain gained momentum after methanol to olefin and methanol to propylene projects were accelerated, which have a bigger profit margin.
NPC’s data show Iran produces about 13 million tons of methanol per year, accounting for 5% of the world's total methanol production and exports to Iraq, China, the UAE, India and South Korea.
The methanol industry has experienced an explosive growth, primarily in China and the United States, owing to significant developments in shale gas.
The global methanol market is expected to grow at a significant rate in the coming years, driven mainly by the increasing use of methanol (in the form of fuel and antifreeze agent) in the automotive industry.
Indigenized Catalysts
Sabalan Petrochemical Company has started using the domestic methanol catalyst in the company's synthesis reactors.
Previously, the catalyst was imported from the Danish company Topsoe. However, as the domestic company could not continue its import due to the US sanctions in recent years, it is now using the catalyst produced for the first time inside the country by Sarv Oil and Gas Company.
The US announced fresh economic sanctions on Iran in August 2018 to target key industrial sectors. In the May of that year, the US quit the landmark 2015 nuclear deal Iran had signed with six world powers and in November imposed a second round of sanctions against its key economic sectors.
With the indigenization of the chemical, the country will no longer need to import methanol catalysts.
Sabalan has previously made use of domestically-made hydrodesulphurization catalyst for the first time in the country.
Hydrodesulphurization is a catalytic chemical process widely used to remove sulfur from natural gas and from refined petroleum products, such as gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel and fuel oils. The purpose of removing sulfur from products such as ultra-low-sulfur diesel is to curb sulfur dioxide emissions in vehicles, aircraft, locomotives, ships, gas and power plants, residential and industrial furnaces and other forms of fuel combustion.
Located in South Pars Special Economy Energy Zone, Sabalan plant is a methanol production unit stretching over seven hectares.
Iran is striving to diversify its oil-dependent economy and make better use of its hydrocarbon reserves by producing petrochemicals and other products with higher value-added that can compete in international markets.
The petrochemical sector plays a key role in economic growth, as it creates value-added by reducing oil and gas export, on which the domestic economy has been dependent for decades.
Abundant hydrocarbon resources, rising global challenges to fossil-fuel use, problems associated with CO2 emissions and climate change, and years of sanctions on its oil sector have compelled Iran to play a prominent role in the international petrochemical market.
