Kinetic analysis of methanol to dimethyl ether reaction over H-MFI catalyst

This paper reports the kinetic analysis of methanol dehydration to dimethyl ether (DME) on a zeolitic MFI-type catalyst. For this reaction, γ-alumina is the most used catalyst, but the use of a zeolite, such as H-MFI, is gaining greater attention because these materials exhibit a better stability against water presence and can modulate the catalyst acidity acting on different parameters (e.g., Si/Al ratio or postsynthesis treatments). The kinetic analysis of H-MFI is performed by using experimental data of methanol conversion in a differential reactor and in an integral reactor. By including the most important kinetic models proposed in the literature for alumina, kinetic parameters (as a function of temperature) in the case of H-MFI are calculated, and the comparison between different models is also presented and discussed. In addition a new kinetic model is proposed and data fitting is preferable with respect to literature equations: also data of activation energy are in agreement with literature findings.