Abstract: Ordered mesoporous alumina was synthesized by the homogeneous precipitation method from aqueous Al(NO₃)₃·9H₂O solution using cationic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as template. Characterization results showed that the surface area, average pore diameter, and pore volume of the calcined mesoporous alumina are 179.8 m²/g, 5.4 nm and 0.3 cm³/g, respectively. Over the mesoporous alumina, the space time yield of dimethyl ether (DME) in methanol dehydration reaches 15.4 g/(g·h) at 280 ^oC and 30 h⁻¹ with 90.2% methanol conversion. The activity of the mesoporous alumina samples for methanol dehydration to DME was compared. The detected activity for methanol dehydration strongly depends on the surface acid density of the alumina.

Key words: mesoporous alumina, methanol, dehydration, dimethyl ether, homogeneous precipitation