ABSTRACT
Commercially, ethers are synthesized from a combination of alcohols and olefins with a double bond on a tertiary carbon atom in the liquid phase. However, the literature presents works describing experimental equilibrium results of ether formation reactions in the gas phase. Thermodynamics provides the tools that allow prediction of equilibrium compositions of reacting mixtures, provided the reliable thermodynamic data are available. The data concerning olefins and alcohols are precise, but the properties of the tertiary ethers taken from various thermodynamic tables differ significantly. The experimental results of ether synthesis in the gas phase allow us to verify the data mentioned above. The verified data for the vapor phase can be used to predict the equilibrium compositions in the liquid phase.
