Optimal Integrated Facility for Oxymethylene Ethers Production from Methanol

Abstract

[EN]In this work, we use a mathematical optimization approach for the evaluation of the production of oxymethylene ethers (OMEs) from methanol. OME1, methylal, and the mixture of OME3−5 are the targeted products. The process consists of formaldehyde production, OMEs synthesis from formaldehyde and methanol, and separation. The processes are modeled based on chemical equilibrium for the reactors and surrogate models for the rest of the units to determine the optimal operating conditions for producing the two products. The negative effect of water in the OMEs synthesis presents the alternative of partially removing water from the formaldehyde. However, no yield improvement is found. The production of OME1 results in 0.93 €/kg and an investment of 46 M€ while the production of OME3−5 mixture shows a production cost of 0.61 €/kg and an investment of 51 M€ for a production capacity of 247 and 264 kt/yr, respectively, from the same methanol feedstock. The effect of the methanol source in the cost from different renewable resources is also evaluated with biomass showing the most attractive OMEs prices and competitive ones for biomass price below 100 €/ton.