Graaf et al. state that the chemical equilibrium of the methanol
reaction and WGS reaction can be described very well by relationships
derived from thermo-chemical data, assuming ideal gas behavior
and correcting for non-ideal gas behavior by using the SRK
EOS at high pressure condition [13]. DME synthesis reaction is also
based on a conventional methanol synthesis reaction under high
pressure condition. By the reason of Graaf’s study, SRK EOS is selected
as the governing equation of state for simulating the DME
synthesis reactor.
To simulate catalytic behavior in the DME synthesis reaction,
the LHHW model is adopted. Each reaction rate as Eq. (7)-(10) is
converted into calculating formation like Eq. (12); then the DME
reactor is formatted by the Rplug block with reaction rate controlled
by Eq. (7)-(10) in ASPEN plus [14]. Each reaction rate is calculated
by referenced kinetics parameters from Table 1.