Kinetic Investigation of Η-Al2O3 Catalyst for Dimethyl Ether Production

Abstract

Abstract: Herein, kinetic modelling and kinetic parameters were used to study methanol dehydration to dimethyl ether reaction and revealed that the best model to fit the experimental data was the Bercic model. The dehydration reaction undergoes dissociative adsorption Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism of methanol on the alumina catalyst surface, with the calculated value of the activation energy was 136.7 kJ mol−1. Moreover, the effect of different kinetic parameters such as the catalyst weight and methanol concentration or water in the feed on the catalytic performance of η-Al2O3 was examined in a fixed bed reactor under the reaction conditions where the temperature ranged from 180 to 350 °C with a WHSV = 12.1 h−1.