Thermally self-sufficient process for single-step coproduction of methanol and dimethyl ether by CO₂ hydrogenation

Methanol and DME are highly efficient fuels and relevant building blocks that can be synthesized by CO₂ hydrogenation. While several alternatives for methanol production by CO₂ hydrogenation have already been developed at a commercial scale, DME production is still based on methanol dehydration. In this sense, the...

Challenges and opportunities for process intensification in Europe from a process systems engineering perspective

Process Intensification (PI) is an effective way to enhance process efficiency and sustainability at affordable costs and efforts, attracting particular interest in the European area, as one of the most important chemical production areas in the world. PI primarily contributes by developing and testing new processing technologies that once...

Thermally self-sufficient process for cleaner production of e-methanol by CO₂ hydrogenation

The hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol is a technology that converts a greenhouse gas into a valuable chemical compound that efficiently stores energy. Several alternatives to perform this process have been proposed, but they are either not thermally self-sufficient and depend on using external fuel, or the power usage per ton of...

Eco-efficiency improvements in the propylene-to-epichlorohydrin process

BACKGROUND: Epichlorohydrin (ECH) production is an important industrial process, owing to its importance in windmill blade manufacture, but it suffers from several drawbacks such as high energy use, large wastewater production and low atom efficiency. This original study investigates a novel chlorohydrin-free technology with an enhanced...

Synthesis and optimization of NGL separation as a complex energy-integrated distillation sequence

The synthesis of heat-integrated distillation sequences for energy-efficient separation of zeotropic multicomponent mixtures is complex due to the many interconnected design degrees of freedom. This paper explores the basis on which reliable screening can be carried out. To solve this problem, a screening algorithm has been developed using...

Enhancing the Separation Efficiency in Acetic Acid Manufacturing by Methanol Carbonylation

Acetic acid is an essential chemical used in the production of many chemical products. Using methanol as bio-building block, the acetic acid produced may be incorporated in bio-based products. This study deals with enhancing the efficiency of separations in a process using a homogeneous catalyst, which is the most applied today industrially....