Synthesis Dimethyl Ether from Methanol Using Red Mud Catalyst

Abstract

Dimethyl ether (DME) is apromising alternative for substituting petroleum fuel including gasoline, liquified petroleum gas, and diesel. In this research, the utilization of red mud as catalyst was investigated to dehydrate methanol to Dimethyl Ether (DME). Red mud is a solid waste from the bauxite industry which lead to environmental issues if did not treat properly. The catalyst characteristics were determined in terms of porosity, crystallinity, elemental composition, and pores size distribution. The catalysts activity was evaluated in a fixed-bed reactor at temperature range 200-300 °C. The influence of different parameters, including temperature and type of catalyst were varied to obtain the optimum reaction condition. The results revealed that the highest methanol conversion was 68% at temperature of 300 °C when using calcined red mud catalyst.