A novel energy-efficient process of converting CO2 to dimethyl ether with techno-economic and environmental evaluation
Journal
Chemical Engineering Research and Design
Journal Volume
177
Pages
1-12
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Abstract
This work aims at discovering the potential of CO2 reduction by implementing techniques of process intensification in the production processes of green alternative fuel, dimethyl ether (DME), from CO2 and renewable hydrogen (H2) with both one-step and two-step configurations. A novel intensified process using the two-step configuration (named as TSHI), which converts CO2 to methanol followed by the dehydration of methanol to DME, is proposed in this study. Developed based on the validated thermodynamic representation and the reaction kinetics expression, TSHI shows the greatest potential of CO2 reduction – 1.704 ton CO2/ton DME – among the five discussed process scenarios. TSHI's energy consumption per unit weight of DME is compared with reported case in the literature, which also uses CO2 and renewable H2 as feedstock in a two-step configuration, and the result has shown an energy saving amount of 23%. Though TSHI exhibits high capability of reducing CO2 amount in the atmosphere, the result of techno-economic analysis showed that there are still rooms for further improvements to produce green alternative fuel cost-effectively. ? 2021 Institution of Chemical Engineers
Subjects
Alternative fuel
CO2 utilization
Dimethyl ether
Process intensification
PTL
Alternative fuels
Carbon dioxide
Economic analysis
Energy efficiency
Energy utilization
Methanol
Reaction kinetics
CO 2 reduction
Dehydration of methanol
Energy-efficient process
Production process
Renewable hydrogens
Techno-economic and environmental evaluations
Ethers
Type
journal article