Dimethyl Ether Synthesis via Methanol Dehydration over Diatomite Catalyst Modified Using Hydrochloric Acid

The synthesis of dimethyl ether via methanol dehydration has been carried out over untreated-diatomite catalyst (DM) and hydrochloric acid modified treatment on diatomite catalyst (DMHC). The reactions were carried out in a fixed-bed reactor. The effects of hydrochloric acid modifications of diatomite on its catalytic performance were studied. The characterization such as XRD, SEM, FT-IR and FT-Raman had no deformation after HCl-modified treatment on catalysts. DMHC catalyst apparently gave the higher methanol conversion rate than DM due to the acidity while the selectivity of dimethyl ether from 250 to 350°C was slightly changed. The acidity was depended upon Al(IV) ions; nevertheless, both Al(V) and Al(VI) were affected and hence increasing the basic active sites. Not only was the competitively catalytic methanol dehydrogenation preferred with basic condition but also methanol-blocking water molecule interaction was the unwanted reaction. In this investigation, the chemical-bond arrangements of silicon and aluminium ions were proposed with solid MAS/NMR. The DMHC catalyst exhibited better DME yield than the DM catalyst, and it could be used as a selective catalyst for DME synthesis from methanol.