Flow chart of methanol in China

Methanol is considered as one of the potential materials for fossil-based fuel since its available applications in the fields of fuel and chemical materials. China has become the biggest methanol production country since 2006, so analyzing the consumption, production and transportation of methanol in China has great importance. In the present paper, the flow chart of methanol from production to consumption in China has been systematically described. Chinese industry and statistics data are introduced to analyze and discuss the total and segmental methanol amount in both production and consumption. In China, most of the methanol is primarily consumed in the synthesis of formaldehyde, alternative fuels, and acetic acid synthesis with the corresponding percentage of 35%, 33%, and 8%. Synthesis approaches from methanol to these downstream products are analyzed and the variation tendencies of the demand on these downstream products are predicted. In 2011, about 22.27 million t methanol was generated on-site, in which, 63.7%, 23.0% and 11.3% are produced by coal, natural gas and coke-oven gas respectively. Energy flows of each synthesis process based on these feedstocks are given and the energy efficiency are calculated and compared. As for the transportation, approximately 82.6% of methanol is relied on overland freight, 9% by marine and the rest 8.4% by train.