Hydration and Dehydration by Heterogeneous Catalysts

Most fundamental studies have been concerned with the dehydration of alcohols, presumably because  

Indeed, there have been very few fundamental studies of the fairly important hydration of alkenes and most references to the latter are to be found in the patent literature, which is not too revealing in terms of in depth information. For these reasons, therefore, the greater part of this review is concerned with the dehydration of alcohols to alkenes. 

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Dehydration and Hydration—Addition or removal of water from a compound may be accomplished by a catalyst. Dehydration may occur as an independent reaction or as a heterogeneous reaction such as the condensation of an alcohol with ammonia, or the formation of esters fi m alcohols and acids. Alcohols can be dehydrated to form olefins or ethers. Other dehydration reactions are glycerine to acrolein and acetic acid to acid anhydride. Olefins can be condensed with water to form ethers, aldehydes, ketones and alcohols. The hydration reactions are governed by pressure, temperature, and the mole ratio of reactants. High pressures are occasionally necessary to counteract dehydration tendency and promote hydration. 

R. L. Banks takes up the subject of olefin metathesis previously discussed by J. J. Rooney and A. Stewart in Volume 1 and gives an authorative review of the very substantial literature which has appeared in the last four years. Naturally his account covers both heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis and he summarizes as well the industrial applications which have been made to date of metathesis reactions. S. Malinowski and J. Kijeriski review the specialist field of very highly basic catalysts largely developed by the work of the Polish school. In their chapter they discuss the evidence for the nature of catalysts such as alkali-treated magnesium and other oxides and the kind of reactions that take place thereon. J. M. Winterbottom in a chapter with emphasis on the literature since 1973 concentrates mainly on the dehydration of alcohols as the fundamental studies on dehydration far exceed those on hydration, which features mainly in the patent literature. His chapter dis-... 

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