Conversion of Dimethylether Into Target Hydrocarbons Over Zeolite Catalysts

The continued depletion of easily extractable petroleum reserves leading to elevated transportation fuel prices has furthered the desire to produce transportation fuels from non-petroleum sources. Natural gas has tremendous potential for conversion to transportation fuels due to the abundance and low cost caused by the shale booms in the eastern and northwestern parts of the country. One possible route to liquid transportation fuels is reformation of the natural gas into syngas, and syngas conversion to dimethylether or DME. DME can then be used directly as a transportation fuel or converted to more traditional transportation range hydrocarbons such as gasoline or diesel. The Dimethylether-to-Hydrocarbon process converts DME to higher order hydrocarbons by reacting DME over the acid sites of zeolite catalysts. This work examines the effects of temperature, weighted hourly space velocity (WHSV), and varying the silica to alumina ratio of the catalysts on the selectivity and yield of the hydrocarbon products.