This paper proposes a new thermal energy recovery process of hot gas exhausted from the steelmaking converter by utilizing not only latent heat but also endothermic heat of reaction. The intermittently emitted LD gas was first transferred into continuous, constant-temperature heat source in the form of latent heat in the Phase Change Material (PCM) of copper. Then, the stored heat was supplied to Coke Oven Gas (COG) to induce endothermic reaction of steam reforming of methane. Methanol was finally produced from the obtained gas in the proposed system. A heat and material balance model predicted all operating data of the system and then exergy analysis based on the predicted data was conducted to validate the system theoretically. The results showed that the proposed system has a possibility to produce a large amount of methanol corresponding to 20% of total demand in Japan, with only 28% of exergy consumption in the conventional method. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.