Presented by

Wali Ahsan
May 8,2014
Low Temperature Shift (LTS) catalyst is a
mixture of Copper, Zinc and Alumina.
Since Copper is the active component in both
LTS and methanol synthesis catalyst, Water
Gas Shift Reaction and Methanol Synthesis
occurs simultaneously across the LTS catalyst.

CO+H
2
O <-->CO
2
+H
2
dH=-41.2KJ/g-mol
CO+2H
2
<-->CH
3
OH dH=-90.7KJ/g-mol


In ammonia plant excessive formation of
Methanol can lead to:
Loss of NH3 and H2 production, due to H2
and CO consumption.
Contamination of CO2 : Dew Point in CO2
comp, environmental emissions/effluent
Amine Contamination of process condensate.
For an ammonia plant producing 1500 TPD,
poor selectivity of catalyst can result in a
daily loss of 4-5 tons NH3.

Continued
For each ton of methanol is produced 1.1
tons of ammonia is lost.
Amines are produced across the LTS Catalyst
by the reaction of ammonia and methanol.
The higher the methanol content, the higher
the amine concentration in LTS effluent.
Amines recovered with process condensate
can result in disposal instead recovery of
process condensate.
The amount of methanol produced across the
LTS Catalyst can be reduced by
Lowering the LTS inlet temperature
Increasing the S/G ratio to the LTS reactor
Lower the plant operating pressure
Reducing catalyst volume which will reduce
contact time.
Since operating temperature of LTS reactor is
lower than methanol reactor, the methanol
reaction is dealt kinetically rather through
equilibrium.
The minimum inlet LTS temperature is limited
by two factors
i) The dew point of process gas stream
ii) Activity of LTS catalyst
Increasing the reformer S/G ratio, while
lowering the methanol formation across LTS
Converter, can lead to higher plant fuel
requirements and will increase front end
pressure drop.

Operating pressures in plants are mostly
fixed and can not be changed to affect
methanol make.
In plants with only one LTS reactor decrease
in contact time by decreasing catalyst volume
can result in reduction in catalyst life.


Alkali metals have been shown to promote
WGS reaction as well as methanol synthesis
reaction.
Sud-Chemie has found that if alkali metals
are doped in appropriate quantity the
selectivity of WGS reaction is increased.
The catalyst is known as High Activity Low
Methanol (HALM) Catalyst.

The new catalyst C18-HALM has better
selectivity and activity as compare to
conventional C-18-7-01


Catalyst such as C18-HALM improve the
economics of any plant by producing less
methanol and operating for longer periods of
time with lower CO leakages.

Thank you