Catalyst Synthesis and kinetics modeling for the methanol to dimethyl ether reaction using clinoptilolite

Clinoptilolite, a natural zeolite, has been investigated as the basic raw material to synthesize a catalyst for methanol dehydration to dimethyl ether and a novel kinetic model, based on Langmiure-Hinshelwood method, was presented for the reaction with the optimized catalyst and the kinetic parameters were determined as functions of temperature. The modified clinoptilolite zeolite subject of this study might be of high industrial interest because of the relative lower activation energy (ca. 60 kJ mol-1 ) compared to other reported zeolitic and nonzeolitic catalysts.