Design and Optimization of a Multi-Stage Synthesis Reactor for Production of Dimethyl Ether (DME)

Dimethyl ether (DME) is a non-toxic and non-carcinogenic compound which is considered as a clean alternative for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Despite advantages of DME, development of effective methods for DME production is still very challenging. In this study, to optimize the conversion rate of natural gas to DME process, a multi-stage DME reactor was designed and the effect of various processing parameters on the production rate was optimized using genetic algorithm (GA) method. It was found that the optimized production rate of DME using the multistage reactor was at least 10% higher than that in the single-stage reactor case.

Keywords:

Dimethyl Ether , Multi-Stage Reactor , Genetic Algorithm.