Investigation of different precipitating agents effects on performance of γ-Al2O3 nanocatalysts for methanol dehydration to dimethyl ether

This research includes synthesis of nano-sized γ-Al2O3 catalyst for methanol dehydration reaction to produce DME. A co-precipitation method with four precipitants including sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, ammonium carbonate and ammonium bicarbonate was used for this purpose. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, FTIR, NH3-TPD, SEM, TEM and N2 adsorption–desorption techniques. In order to investigate the catalyst activity, they were used in the fixed bed micro reactor for methanol dehydration reaction at different operating conditions. Also, a commercial γ-Al2O3 nanocatalyst was utilized for comparison purposes. The catalyst prepared by ammonium carbonate showed the highest yield of DME in comparison with other ones.