Regarding the methods of transporting dimethyl ether
Thread Content
Recently, while gathering information on dimethyl ether, I came across an article titled \"Transportation bottlenecks hinder the further development of the dimethyl ether industry.\" The article states that the industry standard for dimethyl ether used in urban gas, issued by the Ministry of Construction, provides a policy and standard basis for the civilian use of dimethyl ether, enabling the tens of millions of tons of dimethyl ether production capacity currently under construction in the country to enter the urban gas distribution channels. However, transportation bottlenecks still hinder the development of the dimethyl ether industry, limiting the scale of dimethyl ether production facilities as well as the distribution of their products. Therefore, I would like those in the dimethyl ether industry or experts to explain: what are your main transportation methods at present? What suggestions do you have regarding the transportation of dimethyl ether?
Now we use tank trucks; of course, the best method is pipeline transportation – it would be great if it were like with natural gas!
If transport is done by tank trucks, for a production scale of 100,000 tons per year (about 330 tons per day), how many tank trucks are needed for transportation each day? If each vehicle can carry 20 to 30 tons, then at least 10 vehicles would be needed.
Transport by train (tank car) can be considered; generally, it is not feasible to lay pipelines for a chemical plant, as there must first be stable customers with consistent consumption levels. Typical methanol plants are equipped for both vehicle filling and train filling; the methanol is transported using tank trucks and railcars, which is a very common and flexible approach
Based on the introduction of the Blue Dot Ultra version, for the methanol and dimethyl ether industries, the transportation of this product is indeed an issue that requires close attention. One more question: is this tank truck owned by the user or rented? It can’t possibly be owned by the manufacturing company, right?
The dimethyl ether transportation I have seen is basically carried out using tank trucks, and these tank trucks are either owned by the dimethyl ether users themselves or rented. Few manufacturers own their own tank trucks; most of them rent them when there is a shortage of methanol raw material.
There are basically very few trains that use dimethyl ether for fuel these days, right? Transporting it through pipelines is also not feasible at the current production levels; it would require substantial investment and involve many issues. If using local sources is an option to consider, then it’s definitely not practical for users in other provinces who want to lay pipelines.
These days, transport is mainly carried out using tank trucks; three scales are sufficient for handling 100,000 tons per day. With 10 tank trucks arriving daily, it takes 90 minutes to fill each one. Currently, there is a high demand for renting tank trucks for transporting dimethyl ether
Special dimethyl ether tankers have special requirements regarding materials.
The key is to have regular users! Using pipeline transportation is more cost-effective