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This pre-print has been archived on the author's personal website (macc.mcmaster.ca) and/or the author's institutional repository (macsphere.mcmaster.ca) in compliance with the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) policy on open access and in compliance with Elsevier's academic sharing policies. ABSTRACTIn this work, a distillation system that purifies dimethyl ether (DME) from its reaction by-products is designed to aid in the conversion of natural gas, flare gas, or solution gas into a useful energy product in remote locations. The distillation equipment must fit inside of a 40-foot shipping container to be easily transported.Given the size constraint of the system, process intensification is the best strategy to efficiently separate the mixture. Several process intensification distillation techniques are explored, including the dividing wall column (DWC) and a novel semicontinuous dividing wall column (S-DWC). The traditional DWC and the S-DWC both purify DME to fuel grade purity along with producing high purity waste streams. The S-DWC purifies the reaction intermediate methanol to a higher grade than the DWC and is pure enough to recycle back to the reactor. An economic comparison is made between the three systems. While the DWC is a cheaper method of producing DME, the trade-off is the purity of the methanol produced.Overall, this research shows that it is possible to purify DME and its reaction byproducts in a 40-foot distillation column at a cost that is competitive with Diesel.

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