Energy Transition with Dimethyl Ether(An Alternative Fuel to Diesel) to minimise the Environmental Impact

Abstract

Many research is being undertaken to meet the growing demand for energy by creating new and more efficient technologies using available raw materials such as natural gas, coal and biomass instead of petroleum. These potential energy sources help generate synthesis gas, a versatile intermediate for chemical production and fuels. It is also considered a realistic way of using vast available sources because directly converting the sources mentioned above into fuels and valuable chemicals is practically not feasible.

Dimethyl ether is known for its environmental friendliness as a fuel. It is a suitable replacement for diesel fuel due to its high cetane number range greater than diesel fuel. DME is an environmentally friendly alternative fuel because of its good burning characteristics, low SOx, NOx emissions. Another concern when considering alternative fuel is using existing infrastructure, including transport, handling, storage and distribution.

This study indicated that the dual-phase configuration of a fluidised bed was most efficient for DME production. The modified dual-phase fluidised bed reactor model generally gave improved results compared to the other methods. This study also proved that the second bed is susceptible to the composition of the catalyst bed, which was mainly observed in the CSTR at temperature increase.