Removal of water from sulfuric acid Suppose I have a dehydration reaction of methanol to produce methoxymethane:
$$\ce{2 CH3OH(l) -&gt;[H_2SO_4] C2H6O(g) + H2O(l)}$$
Usually, people will use sulfuric acid to dehydrate the methanol. Assuming all the methanol was reacted, how do I get rid of the water in the sulfuric acid? Will simply heating the sulfuric acid be sufficient?
You should be adding stoichiometric amounts of diluted acid. Then distilation to remove the methanol by destilation. Alternatively can also use molecular sieves, or add sodium sulfate to dry the methanol