Synthesis of Dimethyl Ether

Fuel industry is of increasing importance because of the rapidly growing energy needs worldwide. Many processes in fuel industry, e.g. fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) [1], pyrolysis and hydrogenation of heavy oils [2], Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis [3,4], methanol and dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis [5,6], are all carried out in multiphase reactors. The reactors for these processes are very large in scale. Unfortunately, they are complicated in design and their scale-up is very difflcult. Therefore, more and more attention has been paid to this field. The above mentioned chemical reactors, in which we are especially involved like deep catalytic pyrolysis and one-step synthesis of dimethyl ether, are focused on in this paper. 

The external-loop slurry airlift reactor was used in a pilot plant (3000 t/a) for one-step synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) from syngas. Specially designed internals were used to intensify mass transfer and heat removal. This new technology is highly efficient and easy to scale-up to industrial. 

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Write an equation showing the synthesis of dimethyl ether. 

Hayer, F, Bakhtiary, H.D., Myrstad, R., Venvik, H., Pfeifer, P. Holmen, A. (2011), Synthesis of Dimethyl Ether from Syngas in a MicroChannel Reactor - Simulation and Experimental Study. Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 167, Iss. 2-3, 610-615. 

Hayer F, Bakhtiary-Davijany H, Myrstad R, Holmen A, Pfeifer P, Venvik HJ. Characteristics of integrated micro packed bed reactor-heat exchanger configurations in the direct synthesis of dimethyl ether. Chemical Engineering and Processing 2013 70 77-85. 

Many other catalytic fluidized-bed processes have been tested at various scales. These include catalytic low-temperature oxidation, catalytic gasification and pyrolysis of biomass and waste plastic, production of carbon nanotubes, dry reforming of methane, hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons, methanol-to-gasoline (MTC) process, synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME), and selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen... 

R 637 M. Nakahara, Roles of Supercritical-Fluid Reactions for 2F Century Energy Problems. Synthesis of Dimethyl Ether and Hydrogen , Chor-inkai Saishin Gijutsu, 2004,8,30... 

R., Holmen, A., Pfeifer, P., and Venvik, H.J. (2011) Synthesis of dimethyl ether from syngas in a microchannel reactor simulation and experimental study. Chem. Eng. J, 167 (2-3), 610-615. 

Yang G, Thongkam M, Vitidsant T, Yoneyama Y, Tan Y, Tsubaki N (2011) A double shell capsule catalyst with core-shell-like structure for one-step exactly controlled synthesis of dimethyl ether from CO2 containing syngas. Catal Today 171 229-235... 

Mao D, Xia J, Zhang B, Lu G (2010) Highly efficient synthesis of dimethyl ether from syngas over the admixed catalyst of CuO-ZnO-ALOs and antimony oxide modified HZSM-5 zeolite. Energy Convers Manag 51 1134—1139... 

Yaripour, F. Baghaei, F. Schmidt, I. Perregaard, J. Synthesis of Dimethyl Ether from Methanol over Aluminium Phosphate and SUica-Titania Catalysts. Catal Commun. 2005, 6, 542-549. 

Eren a, J. Garon a, R. Arandes, J. M. Aguayo, A. T. Bilbao, J. Effect of Operating Conditions on the Synthesis of Dimethyl ether over a Cu0-Zn0-Alj03/NaHZSM-5 Bifunctional Catalyst. Catal Today. 2005,107-108,467-473. 

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