Catalytic dehydration of 2-propanol and that of 1-butanol were performed at atmospheric pressure and 150-300°C over ZrO 2 and sulfated ZrO 2 (S/ZrO 2 ) in a fixed-bed, tubular reactor. The catalysts were characterized with XRD, elemental analysis, FT-IR, N 2 physisorption, TG/DTA, TPD, and TPR. The main structures of ZrO 2 and S/ZrO 2 were monoclinic and tetragonal, respectively. As ZrO 2 was modified with sulfuric acid, its surface area and acid amount were greatly increased, whereas the pore volume, the pore diameter, and the particle size were reduced. Both samples owned weak basicity. For both reactions, only dehydration products of alkene and ether were obtained. The alcohol conversion enhanced remarkably with the catalyst acid amount and the surface area as well as the reaction temperature. In addition, the ether selectivity on S/ZrO 2 decreased with raising the reaction temperature. The activation energy was 81.0 kJ/mol in the propene formation from 2-propanol over S/ZrO 2 . The corresponding value was 94.4 kJ/mol for the dehydration of 1-butanol.

Ni-loaded pure siliceous and aluminosilicate MCM-41 (Ni/MCM-41) and nickel-loaded silica (15Ni/ SiO 2 ) were synthesized via wet impregnation and were characterized by various techniques. The H 2 consumption in the TPR analysis was found to be proportional to the Ni amount in the calcined samples. After reduction the average Ni particle sizes of 15Ni/MCM-41 and 15Ni/SiO 2 were 9-12 and 16 nm, respectively, by means of XRD and TEM measurements. All catalysts owned weak and intermediate Lewis acid sites that increased slightly with increasing the Ni amount and the Al content. In the liquid phase hydrogenation of t,t,c-1,5,9-cyclododecatriene over Ni/MCM-41, the catalytic activity was parallel to the Ni content and enhanced slightly with the acid amount of the catalysts. Consequently, it was proposed that the Ni metallic sites contributed the major effect to the catalytic activity while the Lewis acid sites promoted a small but significant influence on the catalytic performance. It is noteworthy that all 15Ni/MCM-41 catalysts exhibited remarkably higher activity than that of the conventional 15Ni/SiO 2 catalyst.