• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.559-571
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• 2012

Dimethyl ether (DME) is a new clean fuel as an environmentally-benign energy resource. DME can be manufactured from various energy sources including natural gas, coal, and biomass. In addition to its environmentally friendly properties, DME has similar characteristics to those of LPG. The aim of this article is to represent the development of new DME process with KOGAS's own technologies. KOGAS has investigated and developed new innovative DME synthesis process from synthesis gas in gaseous phase fixed bed reactor. DME has been traditionally produced by the dehydration of methanol which is produced from syngas, a product of natural gas reforming. This traditional process is thus called the two-step method of preparing DME. However, DME can also be manufactured directly from syngas (single-step). The single-step method needs only one reactor for the synthesis of DME, instead of two for the two-step process. It can also alleviate the thermodynamic limitations associated with the synthesis of methanol, by converting the produced methanol into DME, thereby potentially enhancing the overall conversion of syngas into DME. KOGAS had launched the 10 ton/day DME demonstration plant project in 2004 at Incheon KOGAS LNG terminal. In the mid of 2008, KOGAS had finished the construction of this plant and has successively finished the demonstration plant operation. And since 2008, we have established the basic design of commercial plant which can produce 3,000 ton/day DME.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.925-933
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• 2011

The traditional feedstock for dimethyl ether (DME) has been natural gas obtained by pipeline from a nearby natural gas or oil field. This report focuses on other feedstock: Coal bed methane (CBM). The resource availability and suitability of CBM for DME manufacturing have been investigated. CBM in a short time has become an important industry, providing an abundant clean-burning fuel and also suggesting as a feedstock for gas industry. The use of CBM will have very little impact on the KOGAS' DME process design and economics up to 50 vol% of $CO_2$ in the CBM source. Many of the CBM sources in Asia are high in $CO_2$, but pose no difficulties for the KOGAS' DME plant. Since tri-reformer requires substantial $CO_2$ in its feed, no $CO_2$ removal from the CBM feed is needed. The $CO_2$ in the CBM means that less $CO_2$ needs to be recycled from the downstream in the process.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.51-55
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• 2010

The global activities to reduce the $CO_2$ emission as a greenhouse gas have been various efforts. Under this circumstance, small and medium sized gas field containing $CO_2$ to develop as LNG is not economic feasibility. Particularly, for the separation of $CO_2$ in gas field, separation facilities should be installed to add. This is and increase in plant construction cost and separated $CO_2$ emission into the atmosphere is not the result of greenhouse gas reduction. When the uneconomic gas field apply the KOGAS DME process, the gas field containing $CO_2$ can be increase economic feasibility because of natural gas and $CO_2$ can be use to resource gas. The Tri-reformer produced syngas as H2 and CO in KOGAS DME process and the resource gases are natural gas, steam, oxygen and $CO_2$. The $CO_2$ is used as raw material gases from recover $CO_2$ in DME process. In this study, we investigated range of application of $CO_2$ in gas field.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.41-45
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• 2010

The physical properties of DME(Dimethyl Ether) are very similar to LPG and well-mixed. As cetane number of DME is similar to diesel fuel that can replace diesel fuel and alternative energy. DME is a clean energy source that can be manufactured from various raw materials such as natural gas, CBM(Coal Bed Methane) and biomass. DME has no carbon-carbon bond in its molecular structure and its combustion essentially generates no soot as well as no SOx. The development of DME process in KOGAS have 4 section. First, syngas section can be manufactured various syngas ratio. This completes the tri-reforming process for the synthesis gas ratio of approximately 4.0 to 1.0 range can be adjusted. Second, $CO_2$ is removed from the $CO_2$ removal section of about 92~99%, so the maximum concentration of $CO_2$ entering the DME synthesis reactor should not exceed 8%. Third, in the DME synthesis section, if the temperature of DME reactor increases, the activity of DME catalyst increased. but for the long-term activity is desirable to maintain the proper temperature. Finally, the purity of DME in the DME purification section is over 99.6%.

• 한국가스학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.33-36
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• 2007

합성가스는 C1화학을 시작하는 반응원료 물질로 최근 DME(dimethyl-ether), 메탄올, GTL(gas to liquid), CTL(coal to liquid), 암모니아 생성 공정 등 많은 화학공정에 사용되고 있다. 합성가스를 생산하는 방법은 천연가스 개질반응과 석탄의 가스화반응, 그리고 원유의 정제 등을 통해 얻을 수 있다. 삼중개질반응은 천연가스와 산소, 수증기, 이산화탄소를 원료로 $1000^{\circ}C$ 이상의 고온에서 반응시켜 합성가스를 생산하며, 균일반응계와 불균일반응계로 이루어져 있다. 균일반응계에서는 천연가스와 산소가 주로 반응하며, 원료로 투입된 대부분의 산소는 균일반응계에서 소모되어 일산화탄소와 이산화탄소를 생성한다. 삼중개질반응의 균일반응계에서는 산소와 천연가스와의 반응으로 많은 발열이 발생하여 전체 반응계의 온도를 유지할 수 있도록 해준다. 본 연구에서는 산소로 인한 삼중개질반응의 온도 조절과 균일반응계의 온도 분포를 위치에 따라 관찰해 보았으며, 실험과 모사를 통해 비교해 보았다.

• Clean Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.287-294
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• 2009

In order to separate the fuel-grade DME from the product of a direct DME synthesise reaction, containing 19~20% of DME, an absorption column and a purification column were employed. In the DME absorption column, the flow rate of the methanol required to recover more than 99% of DME at 50 bar was estimated by the correlation obtained from the lab-scale experiments. In the DME purification column, the maximum DME recovery of 98.2% could be obtained even from the side stream at the 3rd stage above the feed stage, since the feed stream originated from the product of the absorption column had already contained a large amount of DME (20~30 mol%) and only a small amount of light products such as $CO_2$ and $N_2$ (5~10 mol%).

• Clean Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.347-354
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• 2012

In this study, simulation works have been performed for the $CO_2$ removal process contained in the DME production process using NMP (N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone) as a solvent. PRO/II with PROVISION release 9.1 at Invensys was used as a chemical process simulator and NRTL activity coefficient model with Henry's law option and Soave-Redlich-Kwong equation of state were used for thermodynamic models. For the determination of the binary interaction parameters in NRTL model, regression works have been performed to match the experimental thermodynamic data. Optimal feed tray location which minimizes the reboiler heat duty was determined.