International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 46 Number 4 April 2017 214 Page http://www.ijettjournal.org 5381 - ISSN: 2231 AspenHysys Simulation of Methanol to Dimethylether (DME) Hassan Babiker #1 , Babiker.A.Karma *2 , Adil. A.Mohammed #3 1,2,3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology University of Karay, Sudan, Khartoum, Banat ABSTRACT Dimethyl ether can be used as a propellant, also can be used in diesel engines with the advantage of high efficiency, a high cetane number, and low exhaust emissions (no particulates, no Sulphur, and low NOx). Technical-quality DME is an alternative to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It has excellent combustion characteristics due to a low auto ignition temperature. Dimethyl ether has a cetane number of 55–60, DME can be used as a substitute for diesel fuel in a diesel engine. This simulation study is able to predict and describe the compositions of the final production rate, and the distribution of the main components in the final product. This allows the estimation of economic factors, related to the operation of the catalytic reactor. For the present study, DME production process is simulated in Aspen Hysys V8.8 environment. a fluid package is selected along with the components which are to be in the input stream. In the process, NTRL was selected as the fluid package as it isable to handle selected pure components (methanol, water and dimethyl ether). The equilibrium reaction was selected to describe conversion of methanol to DME reaction. Keywords Aspen Hysys, Simulation, Methanol, Di-methyl ether Introduction: Dimethyl ether (DME) has received increasing interest as a potential substitutefor diesel and liquefied petroleum gas. The production of DME from syngas isexothermic in nature overall, and has a narrow operational window in fixed-bedreactors. Consequently, fluidized-bed reactors, which have high heat and masstransfer efficiencies, are major current areas of investigation for DME productionfrom syngas. In the present paper, the comprehensive reactor model proposed byMahecha-Botero et al. has been modified and employed to simulate DMEsynthesis in a fluidized-bed reactor. The modified model has been employedunder various operating conditions to maximize CO conversion (XCO), DMEproductivity and DME selectivity with respect to methanol. [1] DME also known asmethoxymethane, wood ether, dimethyl oxide or methyl ether,is the simplest ether. It is a colorless, slightly narcotic, nontoxic,highly flammable gas at ambient conditions, but can be handled as a liquid when lightly pressurized. The propertiesof DME are similar to those of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Currently, there are several licensors that offer technology for the production of DME based on a two- step process, including Haldor Topsøe, Lurgi, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, Toyo Engineering Corporation and Uhde [1]