DME production in multi-stage radial flow spherical membrane reactors: Reactor design and modeling

•Radial flow spherical membrane reactor is proposed for methanol dehydration.•The process is modeled heterogeneously based on mass and energy conservation laws.•The accuracy of the model is validated against plant data.•The membrane reactor results in higher methanol conversion and lower pressure drop.

In this paper, the modeling of simulation of Dimethyl ether (DME) production through methanol dehydration in radial flow spherical membrane reactors has been focused. The spherical reactor has two concentric spheres that the space between spheres has been filled with catalyst. In this research, the performance of one and two-stage spherical reactors is investigated through a mathematical model. To verify the accuracy of the considered model, the simulation results of a conventional reactor are compared with the plant data. Then, the efficacy of the radial flow water vapor-permselective membrane reactor configurations is compared against the conventional process. The advantages of radial flow membrane reactors are the higher DME production, shifting thermodynamic equilibrium limitation, lower pressure drop and decreasing purification cost in the next stage. The simulation results showed that DME production is improved about 2.8% and 3.7% in the one and two-stage membrane configurations against conventional tubular reactor.