Similar to Philips Etherification Process, ethers are produced by the addition of alcohol to reactive olefins in the presence of an ion exchange resin at mild temperature and pressure.

The feed passes through two reactors in series — an isothermal tubular reactor and an adia­batic drum reactor. The second reactor effluent goes to the product fractionation tower where the ether product leaves the bottom stream and hydrocarbon is recovered overhead.

In the MTBE process, MeOH in the overhead stream is extracted with H2O in the MeOH re­moval tower. The extract from the bottom enters the MeOH-H2O fractionator, while the MeOH overhead is recycled to reactor feed.