Direct Synthesis of Ethanol from Dimethyl Ether and Syngas over Combined H-Mordenite and Cu/ZnO Catalysts

Ethanol was directly synthesized from dimethyl ether (DME) and syngas with the combined H-Mordenite and Cu/ZnO catalysts that were separately loaded in a dual-catalyst bed reactor Methyl acetate (MA) was formed by DME carbonylation over the H Mordenite catalyst Thereafter ethanol and methanol were produced by MA hydrogenation over the Cu/ZnO catalyst With the reactant gas containing 1 0% DME the optimized temperature for the reaction was at 493 K to reach 100% conversion In the products the yield of methanol and ethanol could reach 463% and 422%, respectively with a small amount of MA ethyl acetate and CO(2) This process is environmentally friendly as the main byproduct methanol can be recycled to DME by a dehydration reaction In contrast for the physically mixed catalysts, the low conversion of DME and high selectivity of methanol were observed