ABSTRACT
Although dehydration of alcohols is used in certain fine chemical productions as a convenient procedure for introducing a double bond in a compound, its large-scale commercial use is confined to only several processes. One involves the production of tetrahydrofuran from 1,4-butanediol. This acid catalyzed reaction usually employs liquid acids in a homogeneous reaction. The other largescale process dehydrates 1-phenylethanol to produce styrene using a heterogeneous catalyst.
