Patent ID: 8378150

Claim:
A process for the production of dimethyl ether, the process comprising: contacting an aqueous extractant comprising water and an effluent from a methanol synthesis reactor, in a partial or total vapor phase and comprising methanol and one or more of methane, water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and nitrogen, whereby at least a portion of the methanol partitions into the aqueous extractant; recovering an extract fraction comprising the aqueous extractant and methanol; recovering a raffinate fraction comprising the one or more of methane, water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and nitrogen; feeding the extract fraction to a catalytic distillation reactor system; concurrently in the catalytic distillation reactor system; i) contacting the methanol with a catalyst in a distillation reaction zone thereby catalytically reacting at least a portion of the methanol to form dimethyl ether and water; and ii) fractionating the resulting dimethyl ether and the water to recover a first overheads fraction comprising dimethyl ether and a first bottoms fraction comprising water and recycling at least a portion of the first bottoms as the aqueous extractant.