【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】The world’s first 10,000-ton-per-year methanol-to-DMM3-8 plant came online between 1669 and 2013

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Happy May Day 2024! Safety first. Let’s give praise and support to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment. **********************[A Decade of Progress in Chemical Engineering Equipment] Continuous updates and summaries are available; feel free to join the discussions at https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Engineering Forum) ***************** According to Shandong (Heze) Chenxin New Energy Company, China’s first 10,000-ton-scale DMM3-8 (polydimethyl methoxide) production facility, developed independently with full intellectual property rights, has been operating steadily since its successful trial run on July 26, 2013; its selectivity is around 50%. This not only marks China’s leadership in the world in mastering the DMM3-8 production technology, but also signifies a major breakthrough in the downstream development of methanol in China, opening up new avenues for addressing the surplus methanol production capacity. 　　According to the person in charge of Chenxin New Energy Company, this technology uses methanol as a raw material and ionic liquids as catalysts to synthesize DMM3-8 from trioxane. This project is a key project and a priority project under the **12th Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology Support**. By optimizing the synthesis and separation/purification processes of triomethylenemethane, developing the process for synthesizing DMM3-8 from methanol, innovating and improving key engineering technologies such as continuous catalytic synthesis and separation, as well as carrying out system integration and process intensification, the researchers verified the technical reliability and system stability of the method for producing DMM3-8 from methanol. 　　In collaboration with the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the company built the world’s first 10,000-ton-scale DMM3-8 industrial demonstration plant. The methanol utilization rate of the device reaches 85%, the conversion rate of triomethylenemethane is greater than 90%, and the selectivity of DMM3-8 is close to 50%. 　　The physical properties of DMM3-8 are similar to those of diesel, and it is highly miscible with diesel; therefore, no modifications to the vehicle engine’s fuel supply system are required when using it in diesel. It has a cetane number as high as 76, an oxygen content of 47%–50%, and is free of sulfur and aromatic compounds. When blended at 10%–20% in diesel, it can significantly lower the dew point of diesel, improve its combustion properties, and increase thermal efficiency. It can reduce smoke density by up to 80% and nitrogen oxide levels by 50%; it is internationally recognized as a new type of environmentally friendly diesel additive that helps reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. At the same time, DMM2, DMM3, and DMM4 are also solvents with extremely strong dissolving capabilities, offering broad application prospects. 　　Currently, diesel additives such as cetane improvers used in our country produce sulfides and nitrogen oxides upon combustion. With increasing demands for oil quality and environmental protection, diesel additives need to be upgraded urgently. To this end, process routes for DMM3-8 have been developed both domestically and internationally, but the results achieved so far suffer from drawbacks such as severe corrosion by liquid acid catalysts. Key issues such as low activity of solid acid catalysts, complex process procedures, and product separation still remain unresolved. 　　In our country, the amount of diesel used for transportation alone exceeds 150 million tons per year; if 15% of that amount is added, the annual demand for DMM3-8 will exceed 22.5 million tons. It is understood that approximately 1.5 tons of methanol are consumed per ton of DMM3-8, and if large-scale production is achieved, it is expected to use up nearly half of the country’s methanol production capacity each year. The successful development of DMM3-8 technology provides important technical support and an effective solution to alleviate the severe overcapacity issue in methanol production in our country at present.