Optimization of a Dimethyl Ether (DME) Reactor Assisted by Membrane Concept

Compared to some of the alternative fuel candidates such as methane,methanol and Fischer–Tropsch fuels, dimethyl ether (DME) seems to be asuperior candidate for high-quality diesel fuel in near future. The directsynthesis of DME from syngas would be more economical and beneficial incomparison with the indirect process via methanol synthesis. This studyfocuses on optimum operating conditions for membrane reactor (MR) ofdirect DME synthesis from syngas to maximize production rate of DME. Inproposed configuration, synthesis gas is carried out in the inner side byPd/Ag membrane and supplies the necessary hydrogen for the DMEsynthesis side. A one-dimensional, steady-state heterogeneous model andthe differential evolution (DE) method, as a strong and powerful optimizationmethod, are applied to simulate and optimize the proposed reactorconfiguration. The simulation results have been shown that there areoptimal values of the initial molar flow rate, inlet temperature, inlet pressureof both side and temperature of saturated water to maximize the objectivefunction. The optimization results show 39.1 and 23.5 % increases in theDME production in optimized membrane reactor (OMR) compared with MRand conventional reactor (CR), respectively.

Optimization of a Dimethyl Ether (DME) Reactor Assisted by Membrane Concept Keywords:

DME synthesis , Membrane reactor , Optimization , Differential Evolution algorithm , One dimensional model