preferred lower alcohol used in the present invention methanol may be readily obtained from coal by gasification to synthesis gas and conversion of the synthesis gas to methanol by well established industrial processes as an alternative methanol may be obtained from natural gas by other conventional processes such as steam reforming or partial oridation to make the intermediate syngas crude methanol from such processes usually contains a significant amount of water usually in the range of 4 to 20 wt water in the feed to the second etherification stage reacts with olefins to form alcohols e g t butanol isopropanol and sec butanol which can be further reacted to produce ethers the etherification catalyst employed for tertiary olefin etherification is preferably an ion exchange resin in the hydrogen form however any suitable acidic catalyst may be employed varying degrees of success are obtained with acidic solid catalysts such as sulfonic acid resins phosphoric acid modified kieselguhr silica alumina and acid zeolites typical hydrocarbon feedstock materials for etherification reactions include olefinic streams such as fcc light naphtha and butenes rich in iso olefins these aliphatic streams are produced petroleum refineries by catalytic cracking of gas oil or the like the reaction of methanol with isobutylene and isoamylenes at moderate conditions with a resin catalyst is known technology.