Methanol will cause blindness if consumed

From an Article by Jamison Cocklin, Natural Gas Intelligence, October 15, 2018

Houston-based Primus Green Energy Inc. is finally moving forward with plans to develop a small-scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility in West Virginia after partnering with an international engineering, procurement and construction firm to improve the project’s economics.

The facility, which is planned to be at the site of Covestro AG’s chemical production facility in New Martinsville, was initially slated to begin operations in 4Q2017. Service was later delayed until 2018, but Primus said this month operations would now start in 2020, thanks partly to a partnership with Jereh Oil and Gas Engineering Corp.

“Primus has long envisioned development of a methanol plant in the Marcellus region, but it is our relationship with Jereh and other strategic partners that has resulted in substantially improved economics and will allow us to move the project forward,” said Primus CEO Steven Murray. “With gas supply and methanol offtake agreements from an integrated oil and gas company, assistance from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. to arrange project debt financing, and design work by Koch Modular Process Systems, the project economics are very strong.”

Similar small-scale GTL facilities, which have smaller and more efficient equipment, have been announced for the Appalachian Basin, but none have entered service. The modular plants are said to be deployed more easily, making them a cost-effective alternative to larger refinery-sized plants.

Primus said the modular units would be fabricated off site by Jereh and Koch Modular, then be transported to the project location for final assembly. The company has developed a technology for converting various feedstocks, including wellhead and pipeline natural gas, natural gas liquids and synthesis gas, into methanol, gasoline and diluent.

The facility would produce about 160 metric tons (mt) a day of methanol, using as little as 6 MMcf/d of feed gas. The technology has been tested at a scale plant in Hillsborough, NJ.

The facility would be the second of its kind to enter operations if it starts up as planned in 2020. US Methanol Corp. broke ground last year on a similar methanol plant that would use Marcellus Shale gas. That plant is being built in Institute near Charleston, where Dow Chemical Co. has a facility.

While the Primus plant would produce about 58,400 mt/year (mty), US Methanol’s facility is larger, with a capacity of 200,000 mty

Methanol is used in a wide-array of products including antifreeze and solvents. It’s also an important product for the petrochemical industry, which is expected to grow in Appalachia once ethylene and polyethylene production begins at ethane crackers that have been proposed or are under construction in the region.

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China tariff on US methanol heats up the trade war

WV-AQB refuses to hear environmental appeal

From an Article by Ken Ward, Jr., Charleston Gazette-Mail, September 18, 2017

Photo: Air Quality Board Chairman Michael Koon (left) and board lawyer Mark Weiler announce the board’s ruling Monday on an appeal of a permit for a US Methanol plant that is under construction in Institute, WV.

Members of a state board on Monday refused to hear a permit appeal from a citizen group that is concerned that potential fires, explosions or other accidents at the US Methanol plant under construction in Institute could pose health and safety risks for area residents.

The West Virginia Air Quality Board granted the Department of Environmental Protection’s motion to dismiss an appeal that the group People Concerned About Chemical Safety filed, agreeing with the DEP that the issues raised were beyond the scope of the state agency’s job. The decision means the board won’t hold a full hearing with testimony about the citizen group concerns.

In arguing against the appeal being dismissed, Bill DePaulo, attorney for the People Concerned organization, urged the board members to make clear what ruling for the DEP’s motion would be saying to the public.

“Win or lose, I’d just like a clear ruling,” DePaulo told board members. “Do it in big, bold letters: ‘We do not consider the human health and safety in issuing this permit.’ ”

US Methanol hopes to start production in mid-2018 at the plant that would convert natural gas to methanol, a common industrial feedstock. The facility, located at the Institute property now operated by Dow Chemical, would use parts from a deconstructed plant in Brazil.

A variety of political leaders, including Gov. Jim Justice and Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper praised the project, which promises 60 permanent jobs, during a groundbreaking ceremony two weeks ago. Construction had already begun, despite the pending challenge to the project’s air pollution permit.

In the permit appeal filed in April, People Concerned argued that the DEP’s Division of Air Quality did not examine the potential consequences for the surrounding community of a spill, leak, fire or explosion at the US Methanol facility.

The citizen group had planned to present an expert to testify to the board about what could happen if one of the facility’s largest tanks — holding up to 1.2 million gallons of methanol — explodes. The expert, James Rogers of West Texas A&M University, said in an affidavit that the risks associated with the facility include “catastrophic explosions” and that “critical safety features” to prevent such incidents were not included in the DEP-approved permit for US Methanol.

The appeal also expressed concern about the potential effects on the health of nearby residents from routine emissions from the facility. It also urged the DEP to collect baseline public health data in the area before allowing US Methanol to begin operations.

DEP attorney Jason Wandling told the board that such issues are beyond the limits of what his agency regulates under the state Air Pollution Control Act. Wandling said the People Concerned group was pushing for a broad reading of the state’s air pollution law, while the DEP focuses on specific statutory duties that spell out specific actions the agency is empowered to take.

Wandling compared what the citizen group was asking the DEP to do to the agency deciding to ban smoking because it is harmful to human health.

“If we tried to incorporate any of the provisions appellants ask for, [US Methanol] would be challenging those requirements, and [the] DEP would almost certainly lose that appeal,” Wandling said.

Dave Yaussy, a lawyer for US Methanol, read a long list of local, state and federal agencies that he said are charged with dealing with the safety of plants like US Methanol.

“There is no need for DAQ to duplicate those efforts,” Yaussy said. “If the board agrees to hear this appeal, it is rewriting the state’s Air Pollution Control Act.”

DePaulo reminded the board that the Institute plant is located adjacent to a historically black university, and that other parts of the property were home for many decades to a huge stockpile of methyl isocyanate, or MIC, the chemical that killed thousands of people in a December 1984 leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. And the Institute plant itself, DePaulo reminded the board, has had plenty of serious leaks, fires and explosions over the years.

“It doesn’t take someone who is paranoid or delusional to imagine the circumstances under which this particular facility could cause a very significant threat to health and safety,” DePaulo said.

The board heard about 20 minutes of arguments on the DEP’s motion to dismiss, and then went behind closed doors for more than 45 minutes to deliberate on the motion.

When board members returned to the public session, Chairman Michael Koon said the board was “very sympathetic” to the citizen concerns but that the issues “are not in the purview” of the DEP.

Koon said the board had reached a “consensus,” but that the decision was not unanimous. He did not provide a vote count or specify which board members voted which way. Other board members taking part in the meeting were Grant Bishop, Stanley Mills, Tom Hansen and Jon Hunter.

Small chemical plant in Brazil . . .

Institute citizens meet to discuss methanol plant

From an Article by Alex Thomas in WV MetroNews | February 14, 2017

INSTITUTE, W.Va. – A new methanol plant in Institute drew concern from citizens at a meeting February 13th  at West Virginia State University.

The founders of U.S. Methanol, Brad Gunn and Richard Wolfli, discussed at the meeting the upcoming construction of Liberty-1, a plant to be built on state Route 25. According to a release from the company, it will move an existing methanol production facility from Brazil to an 11-acre complex.

Company CEO Brad Gunn said the compound will be produced to be used by other companies based on the Kanawha River. Gunn said putting the plant in Institute made sense because of a growing demand.

Methanol is a chemical made when methane is combined with steam and pressure, and can be found in plastics and LCD screens. “It’s all over the place,” Gunn said.

The event was hosted by People Concerned About Chemical Safety, a local nonprofit that was founded in 1985 following the Union Carbide chemical plant disaster in Bhopal, India, a year earlier. Chemicals leaking from the plant killed an estimate 4,000 people.

Pam Nixon, president of the organization’s board of directors, said the meeting was held to inform people about the plant. “We wanted to give the community a chance to be able to get information, so that if they wanted to submit any comment, they would have informed comments that they could submit,” Nixon said.

Construction of the plant is scheduled to begin in March. Gunn said the facility would be operational by the end of 2017, and would create more than 60 permanent jobs and 300 temporary construction jobs.

Some of the more than dozen people who attended the meeting said they were worried about the possible environmental impact of the plant, making note of how previous companies have polluted the community. One moment mentioned was the 2008 explosion at the Bayer CropScience facility that killed two people and injured eight others.

Kathy Ferguson from Institute, said she cannot help but be doubtful because of the past. “There has to be some kind of cumulative effect, and that’s concerning to me,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said pollution related to industrial growth has driven graduates away from the area. “It takes away from the state in the sense that young people don’t want to stay here,” Ferguson said.

Gunn said he and Wolfli want to create a different type of chemical company, adding they themselves are moving to the Charleston area to supervise the plant. “You can view this as a clean slate,” Gunn said. “A way to make a new start. We come without any of those preconceived ideas. We have to be mindful and respectful of the past and what other companies have done.”

Neither Gunn nor Wolfli have direct experience dealing with methane production. They both, however, have a combined 45 years in the energy and technology industries.

Gunn said U.S. Methanol is still waiting on an emission permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection, which he expects will be approved within the next 30 days.

A second facility, Liberty-2, is scheduled to be built in Belle, WV (just east of Charleston off US Route 60.)

See also: Methanol Tech