Gasoline from coal via DME with electricity co-production and CO₂ capture

Synthetic gasoline may be produced from coal-derived synthesis gas via the methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) process of ExxonMobil. The combination of commercial syngas-to-methanol technology with the MTG process thus provides a ready synthetic route for liquid hydrocarbon fuels. An alternative process has been proposed for gasoline from coal that would involve producing dimethyl ether (DME) directly from coal-derived syngas in a liquid-phase synthesis reactor and then converting the DME to gasoline. This paper presents energy and carbon balances and cost estimates based on detailed Aspen Plus process simulations for five plant designs to co-produce gasoline and electricity from coal via a DME-to-gasoline (DTG) process.