Comparison of Performance of Comercial Engelhard γ-Al2O3 Catalyst and Synthesized γ-Al2O3 Nano Catalyst for Dehydration of Methanol

The conversion of methanol to dimethyl ether was carried out over the commercial Engelhard γ-Al2O3 catalyst and synthesized γ-Al2O3 nano catalysts to evaluate their catalytic performances. The activity of each catalyst was examined in the dehydration of methanol to DME using a fixed-bed microreactor at a reaction pressure of 1 barg and WHSV of 15 h-1.The catalysts characterized by XRD technique. The results showed that maximum conversion of reaction was observed at temperature range of 310 to 350 ⁰C and WHSV of 15 hr-1 with methanol conversion of 84% for commercial catalyst and 85% for synthesized catalyst. The commercial catalyst exhibited better stability at the temperature range of 300 to 380 ºC in dehydration of methanol

Keywords:

Methanol , Dimethylether , Dehydration , Commercial Catalyst , Synthesized nano γ-Al2O3