CATALYTIC ACTIVITY AND DEACTIVATION OF ACIDIC ION-EXCHANGE RESINS IN METHYL TERT-BUTYL ETHER LIQUID-PHASE SYNTHESIS

This paper presents a comparative study of catalytic activity of 12 di fferent styrene-divinylbenzene ion-exchange resins as catalysts for MT BE (methyl tert-butyl ether) liquid-phase synthesis. Experiments were carried out at 1.6 MPa and 323 K using a stationary fixed-bed fed with methanol and C-4 olefinic cut as the source of isobutylene. The isobu tylene/methanol molar ratio studied was 0.91 and the LHSV employed in the continuous operation was 85 h(-1). Experimental data show that ion exchangers with higher acidic capacity were the most active ones. It seems that this parameter plays the greatest influence on the catalyti c activity for MTBE synthesis whereas other properties such as surface area and average pore diameter hardly influence it.