Opportunities for Chemical Manufacturing Using Natural Gas Feedstocks in the San Juan Basin

Authored by Sean E DeRosa, P Sue Downes, Rick Lentz, David T Allen

Date Published: 2016

DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.6b01370

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

The San Juan Basin, located in northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado, produces natural gas from oil, gas, and coalseam wells. Because of abundant natural gas supply and price discounts relative to other natural gas trading hubs, the San Juan Basin is an attractive location to establish greenfield manufacturing of value-added chemicals from locally produced natural gas. To assess the viability of manufacturing different types of chemicals, agent -based models of three chemical markets were created to simulate historical market operation in the United States. Using the agent -based models, potential market share of a greenfield plant in the San Juan Basin is estimated. The historical market models show that world-scale production of urea or polypropylene could be achieved by a manufacturing plant in the San Juan Basin. Production of propylene in the region likely could not sustain world-scale production, even with improvements in local transportation infrastructure connections.
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Simulation Supply chains Framework