Moradi - Department of chemical engineering, Faculty of engineering, Razi University, Tagh bostan, Kermanshah, Iran
Abbasian - Department of chemical engineering, Faculty of engineering, Razi University, Tagh bostan, Kermanshah, Iran
Yaripour - Catalysis Research Group, Arak Center of Petrochemical Research & Technology Co., National Petrochemical Company(NPC) Arak, Iran

Activity and stability of a commercial dehydration catalyst (γ-Al2O3) in the process of methanol dehydration were studied in a fixed bed reactor. In this research, the effect of different parameters such as: temperature, weight percent of water in the feed and weight percent of ethanol in the feed on the catalyst deactivation were investigated. The reactions of dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis with the feed consist of different weight percent of water (0-20%), ethanol (0-2%) and methanol were tested at the pressure 16 barg and temperature range 260-380°C, each test for 200h time on stream. The fresh and deactivated catalysts have been characterized by BET, XRD, SEM and NH3-TPD techniques. Fractional Factorial Design (FFD) has been used for experimental design and analyzing the results of experiments. Activity versus time for γ-Al2O3 at different operational conditions has been measured and the following order of importance in deactivation has been obtained from analyzing the results: Temperature>Ethanol % in feed >Water % in feed.

Methanol, Dehydration, Deactivation, Dimethyl ether, catalyst