Kinetic study of 1-butanol dehydration to di-n-butyl ether over Amberlyst 70

Kinetics of the catalytic dehydration of 1‐butanol to di‐n‐butyl ether (DNBE) over Amberlyst 70 was investigated. Experiments were performed in liquid phase at 4 MPa and 413–463 K. Three elementary reaction mechanisms were considered: a Langmuir–Hinselwood–Hougen–Watson (LHHW) formulation; an Eley–Rideal (ER) formulation in which DNBE remains adsorbed; an ER formulation in which water remains adsorbed. Two kinetic models explain satisfactorily the dehydration of 1‐butanol to DNBE: a LHHW formalism in which the surface reaction between two adjacent adsorbed molecules of 1‐butanol is the rate limiting step (RLS) and where the adsorption of water is negligible, and a mechanism in which the RLS is the desorption of water being the adsorption of DNBE negligible. In both models, the strong inhibiting effect of water was successfully taken into account by means of a correction factor derived from a Freundlich adsorption isotherm. Both models present similar values of apparent activation energies (122 ± 2 kJ/mol). © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 180–194, 2016