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DME PROJECT IN TRINIDAD & TOBAGO This project will produce 1 million tons of methanol and
Caribbean Gas Chemical Limited (CGCL); Joint Venture 100 thousand tons of dimethyl ether per year. Commercial
with Government of Trinidad & Tobago (GORTT), MITUBISHI operation is scheduled to start in fiscal year 2016. The
Corporation (MC), MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICAL (MGC) factory will be constructed in the La Brea area.
and Neal & Massy holdings Limited (N&M)) started Our target markets for the Caribbean are for use as an
developing a project for the commercialization of natural LPG substitute (DME blending), diesel vehicle substitute
gas based petrochemicals. and diesel power substitute.

DME FOR POWER GENERATION Industries (MHI) has developed the low NOx burner for both
gas-fired and liquid-fired combustion. The main issues arose
Gas turbine due to the fact that DME has an auto-ignition temperature
Liquid phase injection has been confirmed technically of 350oC which is 150~250oC lower than that of methane
and propane and therefore the necessity to prevent auto-
and commercial operation would be possible when DME ignition and flash-back phenomena.
becomes available as a fuel for power generation. DME
has similar properties to LPG and the liquid phase injection Hitachi developed the multi-cluster Burner for low NOx
system of gas turbine has been commercialized for LPG. emissions. The target gas turbine of this development is the
BP has tested DME as a Gas Turbine Fuel. Test results H25 gas turbine which is a 25MW class Hitachi gas turbine.
conducted at General Electric (GE) showed that the emission The performance was confirmed achieving less than 20ppm
properties and other key combustor operating parameters, NOx emission and a combustion efficiency of over 99%. The
including dynamic pressures and metal temperatures were technical promise of low NOx combustion was confirmed
comparable to natural gas. Power generation efficiency for the introduction of DME as a fuel for a high efficiency gas
(Lower Heating Value (LHV) basis) using liquid DME was turbine combined cycle power generation. Kawasaki Heavy
estimated to be about 1.6-2.8% higher than that using Industries (KHI) developed the liquid injection nozzle.
natural gas and about 6-7% higher than that using liquid
naphtha. The estimated performance was based on 700- Much research has been conducted on the chemically
1000 MW combined cycle power plants based on the recuperated gas turbine system. Toshiba and The Kansai
GE9E and 9FA machines. (Basu, Gradassi, Sills, Fleisch, Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) developed a 30kW system
& Puri, 2001)
with a micro gas turbine. The heating value of the reformed
gas increased by about 10%. The power generation
Mitsubishi efficiency also increased by the same increment with lower
H e a v y
NOx emissions.

INDUSTRY JOURNAL 18