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CURRENT STATUS OF TECHNOLOGY AND TRENDS

Oberon Fuels is operating a Demo/Pilot plant for converting biogas and other hydrocarbon
rich waste streams to higher valued commodities such as DME. Using its proprietary small-
scale process, Oberon makes DME and methanol from various methane and carbon dioxide
sources. In 2013, Oberon Fuels’ pilot plant, in Brawley, California, produced the first fuel-
grade DME in North America. This ASTM D7901 compliant fuel is currently being used in North
American demonstrations of DME-powered heavy-duty trucks [42]. The nameplate capacity of
the plant is 4500 gallons. Korean Gas has developed a 10 TPD Pilot plant for single step DME
from reformed syngas, and based on successful experimentation for several years, they have
decided to build a larger plant of 300,000 TPA capacity of DME. The engineering was done by
Unitel Technologies of Chicago, USA [43].
Recently, Clariant announced that it has supplied a proprietary developed CO -SNG catalyst
2
for the methanation unit of Audi’s new power-to-gas facility in Werlte, Germany. The so-called
“e-gas plant” was started up in June 2013 and it will produce an average of 1.4 million cubic
meters of renewable synthetic methane per year, chemically binding some 2,800 metric tons
of CO . The plant was developed, constructed and built by Stuttgart-based plant manufacturer
2
ETOGAS GmbH (formerly SolarFuel). The technology can be also used to store surplus
energy in the gas pipeline system and to balance energy supply against demand. Clariant is
also working with Foster Wheeler and other groups for coal based Methanation plants. [146]
A summary of the demonstration plants is shown in Table 11.

TABLE 11
List of Operating Demonstration Plants

S. No. Developer Feed Product Capacity Reference
1 CRI International Geothermal Methanol 4000 MTPA 38
electricity& CO 2
2 Enerkem Inc MSW Biofuel - 39
3 Soperton, Georgia Wood, Biomass Methanol - 40
4 Maverick Synfuels Landfill Biogas Methanol 25TPD Skid mounted 29
5 DME Dev. Corp. Natural Gas DME %TPD, Pilot Plant,100 TPD and 41
Japan design of 80,000TPY
6 Oberon - DME 4500 Gal/Yr. 42
7 Korean Gas Natural Gas DME 10 TPD, 300,000 TPA on design 43
8 Clariant CO & Power Synthetic 1.4 million cubic meters/year 146
2
Methane

It is clear that it is technically feasible to produce methanol/DME from different feedstocks with
the available technology basket from different sources. With regard to biomass gasification for
production of methanol/DME, there is a possibility of putting together available technologies,
which are not fully matured yet. There is lot of development in this area and many groups are
aggressively working towards development of viable technology. However, the main problem
with biomass based plants is the cost and sustained availability of biomass.

3.6 Availability of Proven or Emerging Technologies

Conversion of carbon or hydrocarbons to foundation block chemicals such as methanol or
DME appears to be simple, but the overall process has hidden complexities. Although there
has been Intensive research during the last several decades, there are still many technology

52 Methanol and DME Production: Survey and Roadmap | 2017