Indirect methyl acetate production process based on dimethyl ether using seed-derived ferrierite from shale gas

Shale-gas-derived methyl acetate (MA) production is an energy-efficient value-added chemical process. Therefore, we first simulated dimethyl ether (DME) production process from shale-gas-derived syngas (CO/H-2) by controlling the syngas composition using a membrane separation process and then converted the resulting DME into MA as a proof-of-concept strategy. Our proposed integrated MA synthesis process consisted of syngas production (including Matrimid (R) 5218 membrane separation), DME production/separation (Cu-ZnO-Al2O3/ferrierite catalyst), and MA production/separation (FER@FER catalyst). In addition, the DME-based MA yield and selectivity were determined using a fixed-bed reactor, and the results were applied to the Aspen Plus (TM) simulator to describe the overall MA production process from shale-gas. Our proposed MA production process enabled continuous MA production from shale gas and simultaneous H-2 production. Furthermore, the proposed catalyst increased MA selectivity to 97% and exhibited relatively high conversion (27.82%) of DME to MA in excess CO. Most importantly, our rigorously mathematically modeled technoeconomic analysis (TEA) estimated that the MA production costs were approximately 0.71, 0.64, 0.60, and 0.63 $/kg MA for dry reforming of methane, partial oxidation, steam reforming of methane, and tri-reforming of methane syngas production methods, respectively. The net present values (NPVs) of the respective processes were 617, 525, 667, and 835 MM$ during 30 years of plant operation. Such low MA production costs and relatively high NPVs were comparable to those of the most mature conventional MA production processes (0.95 $/kg MA) owing to enhanced membrane-separation-based DME production and selective recycling streams, thereby supporting the feasibility of industrially producing MA using syngas-derived DME intermediates.

Automated summary

We proposed an integrated process to produce methyl acetate (MA) from shale gas-derived dimethyl ether (DME), with high selectivity and conversion rate achieved using specific catalysts. The mathematically modeled technoeconomic analysis demonstrated low production costs and high net present values, supporting the feasibility of industrially producing MA from syngas-derived DME intermediates.