Effects of support and reaction pressure for the synthesis of dimethyl ether over heteropolyacid catalysts.

Dimethyl ether (DME) is an advanced second-generation biofuel produced via methanol dehydration over acid catalysts such as γ-AlO, at temperatures above 240 °C and pressures above 10 bar. Heteropolyacids such as tungstosilicic acid (HSiW) are Brønsted acid catalysts with higher DME production rates than γ-AlO, especially at low temperatures (140-180 °C). In this work, we show that the performance of supported HSiW for the production of DME is strongly affected by the nature of the support.