Alternative Energy

Producing DME

Methanol can be dehydrated to synthesize dimethyl ether (DME), a clean, colorless gas that is easy to liquefy and transport and has enormous potential in a number of applications. Total is the oil company that is most active across the DME chain.

Turning methanol into an alternative resource for chemical production

Methanol could also eventually serve the same function as naphtha or ethane, which are derived from crude oil and natural gas respectively and are the base materials for the petrochemical industry’s current processes.

By helping to diversify the industry’s supply sources, methanol offers an alternative way to produce olefins, which are subsequently converted into polymers for plastics.

Total Petrochemicals commissioned a demonstration unit in Feluy, Belgium, in the fall of 2008. The culmination of several years of research, the pilot project is designed to assess the technical feasibility and cost effectiveness of an end-to-end chain that integrates UOP/Hydro’s Methanol to Olefins (MTO) process and the Olefin Cracking Process (OCP) jointly developed by Total and UOP.

In a third step, the light olefins (ethylene and propylene) are transferred to an adjacent polymerization unit, which converts them into polyethylene and polypropylene using new-generation catalysts. The installation can also be used to test products, to make sure that they meet customer quality standards.

The Feluy project is the first one anywhere in the world to combine the MTO and OCP processes and integrate them with a polymerization unit. It is also a strategically important project, involving a €45-million investment, one of Total’s biggest outlays for research ever.

The MTO/OCP pairing has several advantages. It reduces the overall process’s dependence on oil and has a high light olefin output. In addition, it produces more polypropylene — which is experiencing fast-growing demand globally — than the naphtha-based process.