Exploring the regeneration of mordenite catalyst in dimethyl ether carbonylation reaction

Abstract

Dimethyl ether (DME) carbonylation to produce methyl acetate (MA) over mordenite catalysts is attracting much attention because of its application in the design of new concepts of thermochemical biorefineries. However, mordenite suffers from a fast deactivation (coking) that has not been properly studied. In the present work, we study the regeneration of the catalyst in several cycles aiming to help the future industrial application of mordenite catalysts in MA production. Both diluted and pure air have been successfully tested for catalyst regeneration. The results show that, in both cases, not only complete restoration of initial activity is achieved, but also a slight activity improvement is observed after reactivation. Additionally, a plausible explanation of the observed results is given in the present work, which is supported by the literature and analyses carried out to mordenite samples.