AN INTEGRATED PROCESS FOR THE CO-PRODUCTION OF METHANOL AND DEMETHYL ETHER FROM SYNGAS CONTAINING NITROGEN

摘要

The present invention relates to a novel integrated process for the co-production of methanol and dimethyl ether (DME) from syngas containing nitrogen, which is based on a two-stage reaction. In the first stage, most of the syngas is converted into methanol by using one reactor or two tandem reactors or multistage series reactors. In the second stage, the small amount of remaining syngas is further diluted by N2 and is converted to DME in the following reactor. Thus, the catalyst sintering is avoided due to the alleviated heat transfer limitations. An overall CO single pass conversion as high as ~90% is obtained, which is maintained during 2000 h's of continuous operation. This invention provides a novel, economic and easy to operate process to convert syngas to methanol/ DME in single pass.