Feasibility Study of Methanol to Propylene Technology and comparison with alternative technologies based on the capacity of the Law on Protection of Downstream Petrochemical Industries

According to the proposed regulation of the Ministry of Petroleum to support downstream petrochemical industries with emphasis on completing the value chain of methanol / propylene and due to the significant overcapacity of methanol production units in Iran and the uncertain trend in methanol price in global markets, methanol downstream projects has attracted the attention of many investors. In this paper, three proposed technologies in methanol downstream are considered including methanol to propylene (MTP), methanol to olefin (MTO) and gas to olefin (GTO). They have been analyzed technically and economically and the results have been compared with each other and with the methanol production plant alone. In addition, using scenario analysis and Monte Carlo simulation method, it has studied different price scenarios for inputs and products of the mentioned technologies. The results show that in the scenario of maintaining the current situation and considering the inflationary conditions in the world commodity markets during the last two years, all the mentioned plants will have suitable conditions from an economic point of view. Moreover, with the completion of the methanol value chain, the amount of internal rate of return of these projects and their net present values has increased significantly.