Sierra I., Erena J., Aguayo A., Ateka A., Bilbao J., 2013, Kinetic Modelling for the Dehydration of Methanol to Dimethyl Ether over ?-Al2O3, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 32, 613-618.
A kinetic model has been established for the dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether over ??-Al2O3 acid function, the most widely used catalyst. The kinetic model considers the reaction of methanol dehydration to be elementary. The effect of water in the reaction medium (due to the high adsorption capacity of ??-Al2O3) has been considered by adding a term to the reaction rate expression, which takes into account the partial inhibition of active site activity. Thirteen different models have been tested. The simplest one does not take into account the effect of water on reaction kinetics; six models consider an exponential effect of water in the term of attenuation of reaction kinetics, and a further six models consider a hyperbolic effect. The selection of the best model has been carried out on the basis of the Fisher test. The model which best fits the experimental data is the one that considers an exponential effect of water, methanol and dimethyl ether.
