Enhanced dimethyl ether synthesis by reactive distillation in a dividing-wall column

Abstract

The high market demand for dimethyl ether (DME) requires innovative solutions able to overcome the drawback of energy intensive distillation steps, and to reduce the large scale production costs of the current process. This study proposes a novel DME process based on methanol dehydration, taking place in a reactive dividing-wall column (DWC) that effectively integrates in one shell a reactive distillation (RD) unit and an ordinary distillation column. The novel process alternatives based on RD and R-DWC, were optimized using the state of the art sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method and compared with the conventional DME process. The results of the rigorous simulations performed in AspenTech Aspen Plus clearly show that significant energy savings of 12-58% are possible for the novel process intensification alternative based on R-DWC, while using less equipment units. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.