Dimethyl Sulfide - Industrial Uses

Industrial Uses

Dimethyl sulfide has been used in petroleum refining to presulfide hydrodesulfurization catalysts, although other disulfides or polysulfides are preferred and easier to handle. It is as a presulfiding agent to control the formation of coke and carbon monoxide in ethylene production. DMS is also used in a range of organic syntheses, including as a reducing agent in ozonolysis reactions. It also has a use as a food flavoring component. It can also be oxidized to dimethyl sulfoxide, (DMSO), which is an important industrial solvent.

The largest single commercial producer of DMS in the world is Gaylord Chemical Corporation, which until mid-2010 was a significant economic component of the paper industry of Bogalusa, Louisiana. The Bogalusa DMS plant operated continuously until this date, since its startup in 1961 by the now defunct Crown Zellerbach Corporation. The process technology practiced at the Bogalusa plant (alkylation of sulfur using Kraft lignin) is no longer in operation anywhere in the world. All DMS manufacturers currently use hydrocarbon-based feedstocks. Gaylord has no production of any kind at the old Louisiana site after opening its expanded DMS / Dimethyl sulfoxide operation in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 2010.