Synthesis of Syngas into Dimethyl Ether Using Cu-Zn-Al/-Alumina Bifunctional Catalyst as an Environmentally Friendly Fuel for Substituting Liquified Petroleum Gas

Suratno Lourentius

doi:10.20961/equilibrium.v5i2.58479

Abstract

In order to meet the need for Liquified Petroleum Gas in Indonesia, which is currently around seventy percent of which is still imported, it is necessary to find a replacement. One of the efforts to replace the Liquified Petroleum Gas is by utilizing dimethyl ether which can be produced from coal as raw material. Coal can be catalytically converted to syngas and then syngas can be catalytically converted to dimethyl ether via a direct two-step or one-step route. This paper will discuss the one-step synthesis of dimethyl ether from syngas using Cu-Zn-Al/g-Alumina as a bifunctional catalyst. The syngas used consists of carbon monoxide and hydrogen with a mole ratio of 1:2. The conversion reaction was carried out in a fixed-bed reactor at the pressure of 40 bar, the temperature of 240-300 <sup>0</sup>C, and the space velocity of 29.3-32.7 mL/g catalyst/minute. The highest conversion of CO that can be achieved is 90.08 % at a temperature of 300 <sup>o</sup>C and the space velocity of 29.3 mL/g catalyst/minute. The synthesis product was analyzed using GC. The dimethyl ether is an environmentally friendly fuel and non-toxic compound that does not destroy ozone, does not contain sulfur, and has a calorific value of about 30.5 MJ/kg which is lower than 50.56 MJ/kg

Highlights

The need for primary gas energy in Indonesia includes the consumption of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG)which is met from LPG refinery production and LPG imports
The first route is through two stages of syngas conversion to methanol followed by conversion of methanol to Dimethyl Ether (DME) and the second route is only one stage of direct syngas conversion to DME
2.2 The Apparatus The apparatus used in this research are the set of apparatus for catalyst preparation, the set of apparatus for calcination and reduction of catalysts, the set of the instrument of X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP), the set of instruments for catalyst characterization, the set of fixed bed reactor for conversion of syngas to DME, and the set of Gas Chromatography (GC) instruments with a Thermal Conductivity Detector (TCD) and GC with a Flame Ionization Detector (FID) detector for analysis of the composition of the reactants and products of the reactor

Summary

Introduction

The need for primary gas energy in Indonesia includes the consumption of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG)which is met from LPG refinery production and LPG imports. In 2018, LPG consumption reached 7.5 million tons, which was met by domestic LPG production of 2 million tons (26 %) and LPG imports of 5.5 million tons (74 %). To reduce the increasing volume of LPG imports, the government of the Republic of Indonesia is currently formulating a program to substitute LPG with Dimethyl Ether (DME) from coal and replace LPG with induction stoves [1]. Indonesia's coal reserves reached 26.2 billion tons. In addition to coal reserves, there are coal resources which are recorded at 124.6 billion tons. Of this amount, 97 million tons are used for domestic purposes (Domestic Market Obligation/DMO). In the manufacture of syngas from coal, the highest efficiency is found in the entrained-bed gasifier process

Methods

Results

Conclusion