Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) has developed an industrial process for producing dimethyl ether (DME) from methanol with completely independent intellectual property rights. DME technology of DICP is with the advantages of low energy consumption, less investment, good product quality, and no pollution. The process performance and energy consumption are in the domestic and international advanced level.

According to the reaction characteristics of methanol dehydration, DICP develops a novel catalyst, which is with the advantages of low initial reaction temperature, wide reaction range and high DME selectivity etc. On the other hand, DICP develops a novel industrial fixed-bed reactor using staged feeding of liquid methanol, by whichthe bed temperature distribution and temperature-runaway can becontrolled well. The process performances are as follows: reaction temperature, 220-350℃; reaction pressure, 0.6-1.2 MPa; methanol conversion, ~100%; DME purity,≥99.5%.

DICP licensed the DME technology firstly to Hebei ZhongjiePetrochemical Group in Hebei Province, China. This unit, with a capacity of 100,000 MTPA, was constructed and successfully commissioned in 2006. The second commercial DME unit with a capacity of  100,000 MTPA was licensed to Huaxin Energy LTD in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, China, and started up in 2013. In 2016, the third commercial DME unit, having a capacity of 200,000 MTPA, was built by Shanxi Xinghua Group CO. LTD and started up successfully.