23 © 2016 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. MODELING OF A TUBULAR FIXED-BED REACTOR FOR THE PRODUCTION OF DIMETHYL ETHER USING ALUMINA CATALYST Dagde, Kenneth Kekpugile 1 --- Harry, Uduak Sylvanus 2 1,2 Department of Chemical/Petrochemical Engineering, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria ABSTRACT A model to predict the behavior of an adiabatic tubular fixed-bed reactor for the production of dimethyl ether using alumina catalyst was developed. The steady state model incorporates the reaction rate kinetic expression obtained from literature into the model equations. The models were integrated numerically using Fourth-order Runge-Kutta method incorporated into a computer simulator (MATLAB 7.7 code). Model predictions are compared with data obtained from the literature under the same operating conditions and a good agreement is obtained with a variation ranging from 0.5% to 2.7%. The simulation results show that the production of dimethyl ether is greatly affected by parameters such as temperature, and feed flow rate with optimum yield of DME at a catalyst bed height of 2-4m at a temperature of 557 to 570K. Keywords: Fixed-bed reactor, Natural gas, Methanol dehydration, Modeling, Simulation, Dimethyl ether, Alumina catalyst. Contribution/ Originality This study contributes in the existing literature by developing model equations that is used in predicting/simulation of functional parameters for optimum yield of DME. Unlike other works which assume isothermal condition, this study assumes an adiabatic condition and could be adopted for simulation of industrial DME plant. 1. INTRODUCTION Natural gas is used for DME production, and Nigeria is blessed with this raw material, making DME usage in Nigeria a very attractive choice. With the use of DME as fuel for both diesel engines and domestic use, pollution can be controlled to a very large extent because it does not produce pollutants as compared to diesel fuels. Dimethyl ether (DME) is the simplest ether having the chemical formula of CH 3 OCH 3 . DME is a colorless gas at an ambient condition; its vapor pressure is about 0.6 MPa at 25 o C, DME is easily to liquefied under low pressure [1]. Its physical properties are similar to those of propane and butane, which are the principal International Journal of Chemical and Process Engineering Research 2016 Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 23-34 ISSN(e): 2313-0776 ISSN(p): 2313-2558 DOI: 10.18488/journal.65/2016.3.2/65.2.23.34 © 2016 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved.