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Synthesis and Evaluation of a Nano-Catalyst for Dehydration of Methanol to Dimethyl Ether

Zaherian, Amir Ali | 2011

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 41696 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Kazemeini, Mohammad; Aghaziarati, Mahmoud
  7. Abstract:
  8. Dimethyl ether (DME) as a clean fuel is a suitable alternative for diesel fuel. It has a high cetane number and does not contain any sulfur or metal compounds. Furthermore, DME does not form any soot and has a potential to reduce NOx emissions. In addition, it is not corrosive to any metal and not harmful to the human body. Two approaches are currently used for the production of DME from synthesis gas. The first is an indirect two-step process involving methanol synthesis followed by catalytic dehydration of methanol to DME over solid-acid catalysts, while the second method enables direct synthesis of DME using a bifunctional catalyst. At present, indirect synthesis of DME is a more economical option. In the present study, amongst different solid-acid catalysts, alumina was chosen as the catalyst for dehydration of methanol to DME, because of its special characteristics such as having high surface area, good catalytic performance and high thermal and mechanical stability. Accordingly, eight different nanocrystalline aluminas were synthesized via precipitation process and then were tested in a slurry reactor, in order to investigate their performance. Finally, the obtained results from characterization analyses revealed that the catalyst which exhibited the best performance with 85.7% activity of methanol conversion and 62.4% selectivity for the formation of DME, have surface area of 351.47 m2 gr-1, total pore volume of 1.68 cm3 gr-1 and mean pore diameter of 19.17 nm.

  9. Keywords:
  10. Dimethyl Ether ; Methanol ; Slurry Reactors ; Nanocrystalline Alumina

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