The present invention is a process for the
dehydration of an
alcohol having at least 2 carbon atoms to make the corresponding olefin, comprising:a) introducing in a reactor a
stream (A) comprising at least an
alcohol, optionally water, optionally an
inert component,b) contacting said
stream with an acidic catalyst in said reactor at conditions effective to dehydrate at least a portion of the
alcohol to make an olefin,c) recovering from said reactor a
stream (B) comprising:the
inert component and at least an olefin, water and optionally unconverted alcohol,d) optionally fractionating the stream (B) to recover the unconverted alcohol and recycling said unconverted alcohol to the reactor of step a),e) optionally fractionating the stream (B) to recover the
inert component, water and the olefin and optionally recycling said inert component and optionally a part of the water to the reactor of step a),wherein,f) an effective amount of a component capable to neutralize a part of the catalyst
active site is introduced in stream (A) or directly in the
dehydration reactor andg) optionally the temperature of the
dehydration reactor is adjusted to increase the alcohol conversion or the olefin yield or both.In another embodiment at step f) an effective amount of a component capable to increase the selectivity for the desired corresponding olefin is introduced in stream (A) or directly in the dehydration reactor.The component introduced at step f) can be chosen from the group consisting of
ammonia, organic
ammonium salts, hydrazine, nitriles, amines (including pyridines, pyrrols, pyrrolydones and pyrrolidines), amides, imines, di-imines, imides, cyanates, isocyanates, nitrites and
nitroso compounds, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic esters, and their corresponding
thio-compounds (thiols, sulphides, disulfides).