Preparation and catalytic properties of a monolithic catalyst for one step synthesis of dimethyl ether

 A monolithic catalyst was prepared by loading C301/HZSM-5 on honeycomb ceramic with γ-Al₂O₃ coating. The prepared catalysts and the supports were characterized by SEM, XRD and BET methods. It was found that a thin uniform layer of C301/HZSM-5 was coated on honeycomb ceramic, thus the monolithic catalysts showed good structural and textual properties. A comparison study between the monolithic catalyst and C301/HZSM-5 particle/powderous catalyst for one step synthesis of dimethyl ether from syngas was carried out using a fixed-bed reactor. The results showed that CO conversion and DME selectivity on the monolithic catalyst were 79.62% and 70.58%, respectively, which were 7.78% and 9.44% higher than that on C301/HZSM-5 particle catalyst under the reaction conditions of 260℃, 4.0MPa and 1500mL/(g·h). Moreover, the monolithic catalyst kept high activity and high selectivity for 100h running, while remarkable deactivation was occurred on C301/HZSM-5 catalyst.