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A novel distillation design for vapor phase dimethyl ether production process
Author(s) -
Tavan Yadollah,
Khosravi Nikou Mohammad Reza
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.1776
Subject(s) - dimethyl ether , distillation , capital investment , capital cost , process engineering , process (computing) , work (physics) , vapor phase , investment (military) , reactive distillation , process simulation , phase (matter) , production (economics) , computer science , chemistry , engineering , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , mechanical engineering , catalysis , economics , physics , electrical engineering , operating system , macroeconomics , finance , politics , law , political science
ABSTRACT The vapor phase dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis is simulated by hysys process simulation software, and relevant cost analysis is also conducted. Based on cost estimation results, it is found that capital investment of the classic DME process is greatly influenced by the distillation towers and operating costs. Accordingly, to solve these problems, an innovative DME process based on a thermally coupled distillation sequence in vapor phase is proposed in this work. The results clearly demonstrated that the novel proposed process leads to 47.9% and 39.7% reductions in operating and capital costs as compared with the conventional DME process, respectively. © 2013 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.