Superior Dehydration of CH3OH over Double Layer Bed of Solid Acid Catalysts —A Novel Approach for Dimethyl Ether (DME) Synthesis

A novel catalyst bed packed with two layers of (gamma)-Al2O3 and Na-H-ZSM-5 showed an outstanding CH3OH dehydration activity, total selectivity to DME and longer stability during the reaction time. The TPD of NH3 confirmed that appropriate amounts of Na-impregnation on H-ZSM-5 drastically reduced the strong acid-sites resulting in 100% selectivity to DME.