Techno-Economic Analysis of Large Scale Production of Poly(oxymethylene) Dimethyl Ether Fuels from Methanol in Water-Tolerant Processes
Yannic Tönges,
Vincent Dieterich,
Sebastian Fendt,
Hartmut Spliethoff,
Jakob Burger
Affiliations
Yannic Tönges
Laboratory of Chemical Process Engineering, Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability, Technical University of Munich, Uferstraße 53, 94315 Straubing, Germany
Vincent Dieterich
TUM School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching, Germany
Sebastian Fendt
TUM School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching, Germany
Hartmut Spliethoff
TUM School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching, Germany
Jakob Burger
Laboratory of Chemical Process Engineering, Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability, Technical University of Munich, Uferstraße 53, 94315 Straubing, Germany
Poly(oxymethylene) dimethyl ether (OME) are a much-discussed and promising synthetic and renewable fuel for reducing soot and, if produced as e-fuel, CO2 emissions. OME production is generally based on the platform chemical methanol as an intermediate. Thus, the OME production cost is strongly dependent on the methanol cost. This work investigates OME production from methanol. Seven routes for providing methanolic formaldehyde solutions are conceptually designed for the first time and simulated in a process simulator. They are coupled with a state-of-the-art OME synthesis to evaluate the economics of the overall production chain from methanol to OME. For a plant size of 100 kt/a, the average levelized product cost of OME is 79.08 EUR/t plus 1.31 times the cost of methanol in EUR/t.
