Kinetic study of isopropanol dehydration over silicoaluminophosphate catalyst

The catalytic dehydration of isopropanol has been studied over a solid acid silicoaluminophosphate type SAPO-5. The reaction was processed varying the temperature and weight hourly space velocity, using a fixed bed continous flow reactor. The isopropanol undergoes inter- and intramolecular dehydration, forming propylene and isopropyl ether, respectively. Nevertheless, the catalyst was selective to the olefin, with an activation energy of the order of 46.1 kJ/mol.