Effects of Reaction Conditions on Methanol Produced to Dimethyl Ether

Abstract

Dimethyl ether can be obtained by using methanol as feedstock and MgO/HZSM-5 as catalysts. The effects of reaction conditions, such as loading of active components, weight hourly space velocity, reaction temperature, and Si-Al molar ratio, on methanol produced to dimethyl ether are mainly discussed. The experimental results indicate that it does not affect the skeleton structure of HZSM-5 molecular sieve too much with adding MgO; therefore, methanol’s conversion reaches the maximum value when the weight hourly space velocity and the reaction temperature are 2 h−1 and between 280 and 320°C, respectively. For β-zeolite and ZSM-5 zeolite, methanol’s conversion increases with the increase of Si-Al molar ratio from 26 to 100 and from 30 to 80, respectively. The article aims to find the best conditions for methanol produced to dimethyl ether.