Methanol Dehydration for Dimethyl Ether

Production for Transportation

Thomas Higgins, Adam McCoy, Brandon Musitano
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Hampshire

Introduction Process Flow Diagram and Material Balance

• 250,000 gal/day DME production rate
• MeOH  DME + Water
• No side reactions or byproducts
• Quality: 99.92 wt% DME
• Low T acid catalyst (Amberlyst 35)

Market Analysis

Jie, L., et.al., “Regulated and non-regulated Emissions from a DME Powered Compression Ignition Engine”

Safety Considerations Economic Analysis Conclusions and Recommendations

• DME Sell Price: $0.93/kg or $2.33/gal
• Minimize
• Unit size & storage • 20 year • Recommend motivating transportation users to switch from low
inventory operation sulfur diesel to DME fuel
• Substitute
• Water as coolant • Total capital • There are enough engineered protections to build a safe plant
• Mechanical seals & investment • Recommended to move on for further design analysis
welded pipes
of $10M .
• Moderate
• T & P drops • DCFRR:
Acknowledgements
• Simplify
• Use of same equipment 198% • We would like to thank Dr. McLarnon as well as the entire
Chemical Engineering department for guidance and assistance