Development and Implementation a Methodology for the Production of Dimethyl Ether from Methanol by Catalytic Distillation

• Author / Creator

  Lin, Alex Y.H.

• This study reports on the development of a coherent solution methodology for the production of Dimethyl Ether (DME) from methanol using catalytic distillation. The validation and confidence of the Aspen Plus simulation results is first tested by simulating a catalyst distillation process for removing acetic acid from industrial wastewater stream. The simulation results correlate qualitatively well with the experimental data obtained by Xu et al., (1999). Using the methodology thus developed, the catalytic distillation column for the production of DME is designed by incorporating the Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model developed by Hosseininejad et al., (2012). It is shown that synthesis of high purity DME can be achieved using a single catalytic distillation column. Parametric studies are used to determine the optimum tower diameter, tower hardware configurations, catalyst location and amount per stage as well as operating limitations.
  Comparison of conventional and catalytic distillation processes using Aspen plus simulations show that there is a significant potential saving of total energy requirement for heating and cooling as well as reduction of plant size and capital cost for catalytic distillation column.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Dimethyl Ether
  • Catalytic Distillation

• Graduation date

  Fall 2013

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3VT31

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.