Dehydration of ethanol to ethylene was performed over com- mercial alumina-based catalyst in a single-tube fixed bed reactor. The catalyst used for pilot experiments was the same as used in the kinetic studies. The amount of catalyst charged in the reactor was varied within 0.33–0.55 kg, the height of the catalyst bed was
0.45–1.31 m.
The detailed pilot reactor set-up is presented in Fig. 5. The cat- alytic reactor consisted of a U-like tube 28 mm i.d., two 6 mm o.d. vertical jackets for portable thermocouples were inserted axially. The first (inlet) part of U-like tube was filled with the inert material and served as an evaporator for ethanol feeding into reactor. The second part of U-like tube was loaded with the catalyst granules. The reactor was placed into a thermostat with a fluidized bed of fine alumina oxide spheres to provide the proper heat supply to the catalyst bed where the endothermic reactions took place. Air