Dimethyl steam reforming

As we learned in Chapters 3 and 4, many inorganic compounds, not just ammonia, are derived from synthesis gas, made from methane by steam-reforming. In the top 50 this would include carbon dioxide, ammonia, nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, and urea. No further mention need be made of these important processes. We discussed MTBE in Chapter 7, Section 4, and Chapter 10, Section 9, since it is an important gasoline additive and C4 derivative. In Chapter 10, Section 6, we presented -butyraldehyde, made by the 0x0 process with propylene and synthesis gas, which is made from methane. In Chapter 11, Section 8, we discussed dimethyl terephthalate. Review these pertinent sections. That leaves only two chemicals, methanol and formaldehyde, as derivatives of methane that have not been discussed. We will take up the carbonylation of methanol to acetic acid, now the most important process for making this acid. Vinyl acetate is made from acetic... 

Invited 15. Kimichika Fukushima (AITEL Corporation) First-Principle Analysis of Metal Oxides and Investigation of Catalytic Properties for Dimethyl Ether Steam Reforming... 

First-Principles Investigation of Dimethyl Ether Steam Reforming... 

Steam reforming of DME Dimethyl ether + Water Heat (Low temp.) LWR Toshiba... 

Toshiba proposed a hydrogen production method by nuclear-heated steam reforming of dimethyl ether (DME, CH3OCH3) for possible utilisation of low temperature nuclear heat from LWR, SCWR and SFR [13]. 

K. Yamada, et al., Hydrogen Production with Steam Reforming of Dimethyl Ether at the Temperature Less Than 573 K , in Proceedings of International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants, No. 5138 (2005). 

Men and coworkers investigated methanol steam reforming over Cu/Ce02/Al203 catalysts [12-14] in a 10-fold screening reactor developed by Kolb et al. [3]. At a reaction temperature of 250 °C and an S/C ratio of 0.9, the atomic ratio of copper to ceria was varied from 0 to 0.9, revealing the lowest conversion for pure ceria and a sharp maximum for a ratio of 0.1. The carbon monoxide selectivity was lower than 2% for all samples. As byproduct, substantial amounts of dimethyl ether were observed for all samples the highest selectivity of 23% was detected for pure ceria. The dimethyl ether formation was attributed to separate dehydration of methanol on the alumina surface. 

The decomposition reaction of formic acid is usually fast [5 2]. Another possible byproduct of methanol steam reforming is dimethyl ether, which is generated by methanol dehydration (see Section 4.2.1) ... 

Dimethyl ether may be converted into hydrogen by steam reforming, which actually has methanol as an intermediate product ... 

The dimethyl ether conversion into methanol could be performed over an acid catalyst such as alumina, while the second step is then methanol steam reforming... 

Steam reforming of dimethyl ether can be performed over methanol steam reforming catalysts mixed with an acidic catalyst [277]. In fact dimethyl ether is frequently a by-product of methanol steam reforming (see Section 3.1). However, the reforming of dimethyl ether is obviously more difficult than methanol reforming, as discussed... 

Takeishi, K., Suzuki, H. 2004. Steam reforming of dimethyl ether. Appl. Catal.B General. 260 111-7. 

Dimethyl ether (DME) is a potential clean fuel and energy source of the next generation since it burns without producing NOx, smoke, or particulates. Steam reforming of DME may be another promising process as the hydrogen source for polymeric membrane fuel cells. 

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