Toyo Engineering awarded World’s Largest DME Plant

Toyo Engineering Corporation (TOYO) has been awarded a contract for 110,000 tons/year (340 tons/day) dimethyl ether (DME) plant from the Luthianhua Group Inc., based in Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China. The DME plant is planned as a part of Sichuan West Chemical City development project, in which chemical plants will be the core industry, and will be the world's largest DME plant for fuel use. TOYO' s scope includes licensing, process design, catalysts delivery, and technical services. The completion of the plant is scheduled for the first quarter of 2005.

The Luthianhua Group is now constructing, with TOYO's participation, a 450,000t/y methanol plant and a 25,000t/y butanediol (BDO) plant. The owner is successfully operating a 10,000t/y DME plant, which was completed in August 2003. Based on the 10,000t/y plant experience, TOYO has made efforts to improve the DME plant performance jointly with the owner through a technical alliance. TOYO's efforts have been greatly appreciated by the owner, which has led to TOYO's winning the order for the largest DME plant.

The new plant will drive DME energy utilization in earnest. A number of DME plants are planned in China. TOYO will intensify its marketing efforts toward winning DME plant projects not only in China, but also in other countries.