Synthesis of optimum-acidic-strength γ-Al2O3 by sol-gel, to enhance dimethyl ether production from methanol

A simple sol-gel method was adopted to synthesize γ-Al2O3 with high surface area using aluminum triisoPropylate (AIP), acetic acid (AA) and 2-propanol.The synthesized catalysts were characterized by XRD, FTIR, NH3-TPD and BET techniques. The surface area and the number of acidic sites varied considerably with the variation in the molar ratio of AA/AIP from 0.075 to 1.5. Dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether (DME) on synthesized catalysts was studied in a fixed-bed reactor at the temperature range of 275 to 400 ºC and pressure of 101.3 kPa(gauge) with WHSV of 20 h-1.The Activity assessment of the prepared catalyst samples revealed that the highest DME yield could be gained at 320ºC, over γ-Al2O3 with AA/AIP of 0.2.

Keywords:

γ-Al2O3 , sol-gel , dimethyl ether , Methanol dehydration