Nanjing Dunxian Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. offers the Single-tube Baffle-type DME Reactor, supported by process package and engineering design, for methanol-to-DME applications. The reactor is an internally cooled type. It consists of a shell and an internal heat exchange tube bundle. The shell includes a cylindrical body, an upper head, and a lower head. The upper and lower heads each have gas inlet and outlet nozzles. Catalyst is loaded in the space between the external shell and the internal heat exchange tube bundle. A catalyst unloading nozzle at the bottom allows easy removal.

Methanol gas enters from the top and flows downward inside the heat exchange tubes. After reaching the lower section, it reverses direction and flows back up to the upper section. There, it mixes with cooler bypass gas that did not go through the pre-reactor heat exchanger. This mixed stream enters the catalyst bed, where methanol dehydration takes place. After the reaction, hot DME gas exits from the bottom and flows to the pre-reactor heat exchanger to preheat incoming feed gas.

The reactor provides a single-pass methanol conversion rate of at least 86 percent. It runs at an appropriate temperature with fewer side reactions. The methanol-to-DME one-step process includes methanol vaporization, methanol dehydration, DME distillation, and DME storage. Raw methanol is at least 95 weight percent. The process uses four-stage heat recovery of DME gas and three-stage heat recovery of steam, with steam consumption of approximately 0.8 tons per ton of DME. Reactor stress is completely relieved for safe and stable long-term operation. DME purity is at least 99.9 weight percent, methanol content is no more than 0.05 weight percent, water content is no more than 50 parts per million, and light hydrocarbons (C2-C4) are less than 0.01 weight percent.

For more information about DUN XIAN's DME reactor solutions, please visit our Single-tube Baffle-type DME Reactor page.