Reaction Pathways in 1-butanol Dehydration On Gamma-alumina

1-Butanol dehydration has been studied on pure γ-Al2O3. Dehydration products are 1-butene, dibutylether and water, and an isomerization reaction leads to 2-butene. The aim of this work was to obtain basic information on the influences of experimental parameters like reaction temperature, reactant partial pressure and contact time on the activity of our catalyst. We propose a reaction pathway where the most important fact is a competitive phenomenon between direct and consecutive dehydration reactions.