• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.8-14
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• 2009

Dimethyl ether(DME) was synthesized from synthesis gas by a one-step process in which a hybrid catalyst was used. The hybrid catalyst consisted of Cu-ZnO-$Al_2O_3$ for the methanol synthesis reaction and aluminum phosphate or $H_3PO_4$-modified $\gamma$-alumina for the methanol dehydration reaction. The prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, FT-IR and $NH_3$-TPD. From the XRD analysis, it was verified that the aluminum phosphate was successfully synthesized. The specific surface areas of the synthesized aluminum phosphates were varied with the ratio of P/Al. The hybrid catalyst in which P/Al ratio of the aluminum phosphate was 1.2 showed the highest CO conversion of 55% and DME selectivity of 70%. There was no remarkable decrease in catalytic activity with the phosphoric acid treatment of $\gamma$-alumina. However, when treated with concentrated phosphoric acid(85%), the catalytic activity and DME selectivity decreased.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 2011

Dimethyl ether draws an attention as a green fuel in recent years. In this study, we investigated dehydration of methanol to produce DME using solid-acid catalysts, a series of zeolite. We found that ceria took a role of promoting the reaction conversion as well as selectivity of DME formation as a cocatalyst to the zeolite catalyst. We varied Si/Al ratio and ceria percentage on the surface of the catalyst to get high performance catalyst. ZSM5-30 with 5 wt% ceria on the surface was found to have excellent DME selectivity and to be little influenced by water content in methanol feed. We proposed a reaction model and obtained kinetic parameters for the DME formation using the catalyst based on experimental results using a microreactor.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.796-806
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• 2014

The key for the commercial deployment of IGCC power plants or chemical (methanol, dimethyl ether, etc.) production plants based on coal gasification is their economic advantage over plants producing electricity or chemicals from crude oil or natural gas. The better economy of coal gasification based plants can be obtained by co-production of electricity and chemicals. In this study, we carried out the economic feasibility analysis on the process of co-producing electricity and DME (dimethyl ether) using coal gasification. The plant's capacity was 250 MW electric and DME production of 300,000 ton per year. Assuming that the sales price of DME is 500,000 won/ton, the production cost of electricity is in the range of 33~58% of 150.69 won/kwh which is the average of SMP (system marginal price) in 2013, Korea. At present, the sales price of DME in China is approximately 900,000 won/ton. Therefore, there are more potential for lowering the price of co-produced electricity when comparing that from IGCC only. Since the co-production system can not only use the coal gasifier and the gas purification process as a common facility but also can control production rates of electricity and DME depending on the market demand, the production cost of electricity and DME can be significantly reduced compared to the process of producing electricity or DME separately.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.353-357
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• 2012

The new qualitative and quantitative analytical method for hydrocarbon compounds in DME-LPG blending fuel, mixing dimethyl ether (DME) with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), by using gas chromatography (GC) was investigated. It is difficult to analyze all components of DME-LPG blending fuel by using single column in GC due to consisting of the non-polar LPG and the polar DME which is oxygen-containing compound. Therefore, it has been introduced the Deans switching system, which are useful for analyzing mixtures of a very different nature and/or target analytes in very complex matrix. This technique is to control the pressure between two columns and to selectively change the path of effluent flows to either one of two columns. As a result, we found that DME and LPG can be completely separated at the different columns and the determination of all hydrocarbon compounds in DME-LPG blending fuel can be achieved to this method qualitatively and quantitatively during the operation of one injection. In addition, this method can be applied to the determination of trace components of by-product, such as methanol, methyl formate and ethyl methyl ether, which will be derived from DME synthesis process.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.140-146
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• 2006

The objective of this work is to analyze the atomization and evaporation characteristics of dimethyl ether(DME) fuel for the application of HCCI diesel engine. In order to investigate the spray behavior of DME fuel, the macroscopic and microscopic characteristics were investigated in terms of spray development, spray tip penetration, impingement time, SMD, and axial mean velocity under the various injection timing and ambient conditions. For the illumination of spray, the spray visualization system was composed of a Nd:YAG laser and an ICCD camera and laser-sheet method was used. The atomization characteristics of DME fuel are analyzed by using phase Doppler particle analyzer (PDPA) system It was reveal that the spray development of DME is slower and rapidly disappeared as elapsed time after start of injection at the same injection duration. The impingement timing of diesel fuel was fester than that of DME fuel. The comparison of spray atomization characteristics in both fuels shows that diesel fuel has a large SMD value that DME.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.1973-1978
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• 2008

The NOx emission characteristics of DME in counterflow nonpremixed flames were investigated numerically, and brief experiments were carried out to compare the flame shapes and NOx emissions with those of $C_3H_8$ and $C_2H_6$. The DME flames were calculated using Kaiser's mechanism, while the $C_2H_6$ flames were calculated using the $C_3$ mechanism. These mechanisms were combined with the modified Miller-Bowman mechanism for the analysis of NOx. Experimental results show that DME flame has the characteristics of partial premixed flame and the flame length becomes very shorter compared with general hydrocarbon fuels and then, the NOx emission of DME is low as much as 60% of $C_3H_8$. In the calculated results of counterflow nonpremixed flames, the EINO of DME nonpremixed flame is low as much as 50% of the $C_2H_6$ nonpremixed flame. The cause of $EI_{NO}$ reduction is attributed mainly to the characteristics of partial premixed flame due to the existence of O atom in DME and partly to the O-C bond in DME, instead of C-C bond in hydrocarbon fuels.

• 한국가스학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.24-26
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• 2007

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.41-45
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• 2010

The physical properties of DME(Dimethyl Ether) are very similar to LPG and well-mixed. As cetane number of DME is similar to diesel fuel that can replace diesel fuel and alternative energy. DME is a clean energy source that can be manufactured from various raw materials such as natural gas, CBM(Coal Bed Methane) and biomass. DME has no carbon-carbon bond in its molecular structure and its combustion essentially generates no soot as well as no SOx. The development of DME process in KOGAS have 4 section. First, syngas section can be manufactured various syngas ratio. This completes the tri-reforming process for the synthesis gas ratio of approximately 4.0 to 1.0 range can be adjusted. Second, $CO_2$ is removed from the $CO_2$ removal section of about 92~99%, so the maximum concentration of $CO_2$ entering the DME synthesis reactor should not exceed 8%. Third, in the DME synthesis section, if the temperature of DME reactor increases, the activity of DME catalyst increased. but for the long-term activity is desirable to maintain the proper temperature. Finally, the purity of DME in the DME purification section is over 99.6%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.74-80
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• 2007

An experiment was conducted with a common-rail direct injection diesel engine operated with neat dimethyl ether (DME). In order to investigate the effect of combustion characteristics and emission reduction of DME fuel, the experiment was performed at various injection pressure from 35 MPa to 50MPa. Also, the exhaust emissions from the engine were compared with that of diesel fuel. In this work, Cooled EGR was implemented to reduce $NO_x$ exhaust emissions. The results showed that DME has shorter ignition delay than that of diesel fuel. Despite of the increased $NO_x$ emissions with DME at an equal engine power compared to the case of fueling diesel, the engine emitted zero soot emissions all over the operating conditions in this work. $NO_x$ emission can be decreased greatly by adopting 45% of EGR while maintaining zero soot emission. Judging from the result of engine test, DME is a suitable fuel for common-rail diesel engine due to it's clean emission characteristics.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.115-123
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to compare and to investigate spray characteristics of dimethyl ether (DME) and diesel fuel in the various injection pressures, ambient pressures, and the energizing durations. For the analysis of the spray characteristics, the spray visualization system including the high speed camera and the spray image analyzer is installed. The spray characteristics such as the spray development process, spray tip penetraion and the spray cone angle are analyzed from the spray images. It was revealed that the spray characteristics of DME and diesel fuels are mainly affected by the injection conditions. However, in the region after the end of the injection, the spray tip penetration was affected by the fuel properties such as the fuel density, the surface tension, and the viscosity. DME fuel has generally a short tip penetration and a wide cone angle. In the elevating conditions of the ambient gas pressure, the spray cone angle of DME fuel converged to high value when comparing diesel fuel in advance. Also, the increasing rate of the spray tip penetration in DME fuel is significantly decreased from 0.7 ms of the energizing duration (diesel : 0.9 ms).