Thesis (M.Eng.)--Chulalongkorn University, 2002

Dehydration of Ethanol to Ethylene on modified ZSM-5 zeolites. Containing a iron metal was investigated in this research. These catalyst were prepared by either ion-exchange or gel preparation method. It has been found that the appropriate reaction temperature, the percentage of Fe loading and GHSV over Fe-ZSM-5 catalyst were 600 ํC, 5% by weight and 2000 h[superscript 1], respectively. The main hydrocarbon products from this reaction were ethylene and diethyl ether. The selectivity to ethylene was 83% at 95% ethanol conversion. It was suggested that the formation of ethylene possible proceeded via diethylether intermediate. Decrease of space velocity of ethanol was decreased from 6000 h[superscript 1] to 2000 h[superscript -1], resulted increase of selectivity to ethylene. Comparation between 5%Fe-ZSM-5 prepared by ion-exchange or gel preparation method. Showed that 5%Fe-ZSM-5 prepared by ion-exchange method resulted in the higher ethylene selectivity than that prepared by gel preparation method. This is due to the different of the catalyst structure resulting in the catalyst performance