The increase of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) import in Indonesia made the government promote Dimethyl Ether (DME) as partial substitution of LPG as written in the General Planning of National Energy (RUEN) 2017. DME can be produced from biomass which abundantly exists in Indonesia. Such biomass is especially oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) that consist of 49.07% C, 6.48% H, 0.70% N, 38.29% O, and 5.36% Ash. Techno-economic analysis of this bio-DME production plant was conducted based on literature data. The direct synthesis of DME was applied in this study, instead of using methanol as an intermediate product. Result calculated from mass and energy balance simulation was 4.1 EFB/DME. Thus, 1,090 ton per day of DME can be produced from EFB with a collecting radius of 100 km in Riau Province. Assuming 20 years plant operation with DME selling price of IDR 145,000/12-kg-LPG-equivalent and EFB price of 300 IDR/kg, economic evaluation showed that this business was economically feasible with 10.08% IRR generated. The CAPEX of this plant was 990.4 million USD and the OPEX was IDR 7,143 IDR/kg-LPG-equivalent. DME production from EFB will give the positive economics and environmental effects. Therefore, support and synergy from government, industries, and academics are needed to realize this business.

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Experimental study on direct synthesis of DME (dimethyl ether) has been conducted using tubular reactor. The synthesis of DME was performed with two commercial catalysts, ie methanol synthesis catalyst (M151, Cu-based) and methanol dehydration catalyst (γAl2O3). A mixture of H2, CO, and N2 was used as a model for synthesis gas. Gas flow rate was set at 20 mL/min (5 bar and 240oC). The reaction held at: pressure of 5 bar and a temperature of 240°C. This experiment was conducted by arranging a series of two types of catalysts in a fixed bed reactor. The methanol synthesis catalyst was placed in the upstream to ensure the reaction of methanol formation, then proceed with dehydration of methanol to DME. The objective of this experiment was to find out the best dual catalyst composition to produce a high concentration of DME. The experiment has shown that the best combination of methanol catalyst to dehydration catalyst was a mixture of 20% methanol catalyst (ratio 1/4). CO conversion was 62% and the product ratio of DME/methanol was 40%.