Cylindrical pellet catalyst was made from strong acid cation exchange resin S-54 particles. Ethyl tert butyl ether (ETBE) was synthesized with this kind of catalyst by using ethanol (EtOH) and tert butyl alcohol (TBA) as the starting materials. Experiments were carried out in the liquid phase under atmospheric pressure with a stirred batch reactor. Mechanism studies have shown that three reactions (dehydration of TBA

EtOH with TBA

and isobutene(IB) with EtOH) take place simultaneously. It was found that catalyst size and stirring speed had no significant effect on reaction rate. Other influence factors

such as temperature

catalyst amount

molar ratio of ethanol to tert butyl alcohol and the effect of water inhibition on synthesis reaction were studied. A kinetics model

which included seven parameters

was obtained by curve fitting method. The experimental results agreed well with the model. The kinetics parameters of pellets catalyst was compared with particles catalyst. While the catalytic activity of pellets catalyst was lower than particles catalyst for the reason of the shield action of binder

however

it would be useful in the larger scale production of ETBE.