Open AccessCharacterization and Catalytic Activity of γ-Al2O3-ITB on Methanol Dehydration
Author(s) -
Aisyah Ardy,
Jenny Rizkiana,
Melia Laniwati Gunawan,
Herri Susanto
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/778/1/012054
Subject(s) - dimethyl ether , methanol , dehydration , catalysis , space velocity , chemistry , volume (thermodynamics) , nuclear chemistry , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , selectivity , physics , biochemistry
National Plan on Energy of Indonesia 2017 states that dimethyl ether (DME, CH 3 OCH 3 ) will be used as partial substitution of LPG for household fuel. Methanol dehydration using a solid catalyst is a common technology to produce DME. In this research, a catalyst γAl 2 O 3 prepared in our laboratory has been characterized. This catalyst had a surface area of 194.4 m 2 /g, a total pore volume of 0.55 mL/g, and an average pore diameter of 112, 3 A˙. This catalyst had medium and high acidity sites. Activity tests of this catalyst were carried out in a fixed bed reactor at temperatures of 240, 260 and 280°C. The gas flow rates were related to the gas hourly space velocity of 1500, 2142 and 3000 h −1 . Experimentally, the conversions of methanol were closed to that of thermodynamic conversions, i.e about 90% depending on the reaction temperature. The outlet gas was found to contain H 2 up to 2% indicating that there were side reactions besides the dehydration of methanol to DME.