Methanol to dimethyl ether (DME) assessment toward thermochemical energy storage
2025
Rodríguez Pastor, Diego Antonio | Soltero Sánchez, Víctor Manuel | Chacartegui, Ricardo | Ingeniería Energética | Ingeniería del Diseño | TEP137: Máquinas y Motores Térmicos | European Commission. Fondo Social Europeo (FSO) | Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICIN). España
The production of alternative renewable fuels is imperative for decarbonising hard-to-electrify sectors. Dimethyl ether (DME) is an aerosol propellant and a low-emission candidate for fossil fuel substitution. The main conventional DME production process is the indirect dehydration of methanol produced from fossil natural gas. This work analyses the direct use of green methanol for conversion to renewable DME by integrating a thermochemical energy storage system through dissociating methanol to syngas by solar power and its subsequent synthesis by the novel direct synthesis process to DME. The integrations act as storage methods via exothermic discharge to produce power in alternative power cycles, and they also produce high-quality green DME for heat production in industries, cooking, and as a substitute for fossil diesel. Three novel pathways are proposed: integrating power blocks in indirect green methanol-DME processes, direct DME synthesis of syngas from solar methanol decomposition, and solar methanol-methanol TCES adapted for DME production. Direct DME synthesis TCES offers global efficiencies >20 % and competitive LCOE values compared to current CSP with molten salt storage. Methanol-methanol TCES-to-DME achieves RTEs up to 30 % and levelized costs <270 €/MWh. The results show the interest of the proposed configurations for further development
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