Abstract: | The dehydration of tert‐butyl alcohol (TBA) in the liquid phase was studied by using an ion exchange resin, Amberlyst 15 (A15) in the H+ form. Experiments were carried out both in a semi‐batch reactor and in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) with wet or dry resins. The results with the dry resin in the semi‐batch reactor were different from those with the wet resin due to the swelling of resin in the presence of water. However, the results in CSTR agreed well with those in the semi‐batch reactor using the wet resin. A rate equation that considered the inhibition of water was formulated. The experimental results agreed well with the calculated ones. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 31: 854–859, 1999 |