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Dimethyl Ether Production Plant from Coal

CHAPTER 2 PROCESS DESCRIPTION There are two common process to produce dimethyl ether (DME) from synthesis gas (syn-gas) ; indirect process and dir ect process. ndirect process (con!entional process) is DME pr oduction "y two-step process ( need one reactor at each step) where the synthesis gas is con!erted into DME !ia methanol. n indirect process# first step is syn-gas synthesis to methanol# and second step is dehydration of methanol to produce DME. $n the other hand# direct process (new de!elopment process) is a method to produce DME without methanol pr oduction first. n this type of process# DME synthesi%ed directly from syn-gas to DME in single reactor. Direct process needs a "ifunctional catalyst# so the reaction of methanol synthesis and methanol dehydration can "e done in single step process and with a single r eactor. & se!eral num"er of licensors ha!e de!eloped the direct process of producing DME# such as '(E# )aldor Topsoe# and *ogas. n this preliminary design of DME production plant from coal# that descri"ed later# we will use the '(E technology. 2.1 Raw Material There are se!eral types of raw material to produce DME. The raw materials are natural gas# coal# organic waste or "iomass. The raw material will "e processed first to "e synthetic gas (syngas). There are se!eral process for raw material# depend on the raw mater ials used+ a. ,atural -as .y reacting methane with steam and o/ygen. ". $rganic waste0.iomass .y "iomass gasification. c. Coal .y coal gasification. 2.2 Process Selection 2.2.1 Indirect Process Production of DME ndirect process is a process that common to produce dimethyl ether (DME). There are se!eral steps in this process. (irst# we con!ert synthesis gas into methanol. Then#
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Dimethyl Ether Production Plant from Coal

methanol synthesi%ed into dimethyl ether. (igure 1.4 shows steps of indirect process in DME synthesis with natural gas as raw mater ial.

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i!ure 2.1 5teps of ndirect Process in DME 5ynthesis

n (igure 1.4# it shows that raw material is treated in or der to form the synthetic gas. &nd then the synthetic gas is treated into DME "y two steps. (irst step is changing synthetic gas into methanol# called as methanol synthesis step. 6eactions in methanol synthesis are+ (1.4) (1.1) &fter that# the second step is con!erting methanol into dimethyl ether in dehydration methanol pr ocess. 6eaction in dehydration methanol process is (1.7) 6e!iew of the reaction is show in (igure 1.1.

i!ure 2.2 6eaction in indirect process

ndirect process needs two reactors to produced dimethyl ether (DME) . The fir st reactor is used for methanol synthesis and the second one used for DME synthesis. ndirect processhas ad!antages and disad!antages. The ad!antages are+

Department of Chemical Engineering 3ni!ersitas ndonesia

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