Demonstration and experimental model validation of the DME synthesis by reactive distillation in a pilot-scale pressure column

Abstract

Production of purified DME by reactive distillation was demonstrated experimentally and the first validated process simulation model in the literature for this process was derived.

Optimized design and techno-economic analysis of novel DME production processes

“…In practice, a reduced amount of catalyst would also lead to a reduced height of the reactive section and thus a reduced number of theoretical stages. However, as shown in a previous publication, 12 this effect can be neglected, since the number of theoretical stages in the reactive section has no significant influence on the reboiler duty of the RDC.…”

“…A second design specification modifies the RR so that the DME purity equals 99.9 mol% under full MeOH conversion. Details regarding the RDC modelling and the thermodynamic property calculation can be found in Semmel et al 12 The weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of the RDC is defined as follows:…”

“…In a previous study, it was shown that DME RD is a kinetically limited process and consequently, at a constant catalyst mass, the number of stages in the reactive section has a negligible influence on the process. 12 As a result, a catalytic packing design with maximum catalyst capacity should be employed for DME synthesis. The catalyst volume fraction of this packing type Ψ cp (volume of the catalyst bulk divided by the packing volume) at the industrial scale is typically 0.55 according to Hoffmann et al 24 Consequently, the volume of the reactive section can be calculated from the required catalyst mass according to the following equation:…”

“…In another recent publication, 12 a reactive distillation process producing purified DME from pure and crude MeOH feed was demonstrated experimentally and a validated process simulation model was derived. Thereby, all existing kinetic models in the literature for liquid phase DME synthesis were evaluated with RDC experiments under industrially relevant conditions and it was shown that only the kinetic model by Semmel et al 11 precisely describes the reaction kinetics.…”