Pilot-scale study of the diethyl ether from catalytic dehydration of ethanol over SUZ-4 zeolite derived from rice husk ash

This study investigates the catalytic dehydration of ethanol to diethyl ether (DEE) using SUZ-4 zeolite derived from rice husk ash (RHA) in a pilot-scale fixed-bed reactor. The effects of reaction temperature (200–380°C) and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV 0.5–1.3 h-1) on DEE production were investigated. The results show that at 300°C, a high yield of 59.69% of DEE was obtained with 100% selectivity, emphasizing the efficacy of SUZ-4 as a catalyst for ethanol dehydration. Furthermore, activation energy calculations using Arrhenius plots confirm the efficiency of the catalyst with minimal deviation between experimental and calculated data. This work demonstrates the potential of RHA-derived SUZ-4 zeolite as a catalyst for industrial-scale DEE production in an environmentally sustainable.