Patent ID: 8877667

Claim:
A process comprising: gas phase cleaving methyl tert-butyl ether to isobutene and methanol over a catalyst installed in a reactor, and subsequently regenerating the catalyst in situ by contacting the catalyst with steam within a temperature range from 100 to 400° C. and a pressure range from 0.1 to 2 MPa, over a period of 0.1 to 24 h, with a specific catalyst hourly space velocity of 0.1 to 100 h −1 , wherein the methyl tert-butyl ether is evaporated before entry into the reactor as a feedstream, wherein the feedstream of methyl tert-butyl ether is shutdown before the regeneration of the catalyst, and wherein the catalyst comprises: at least one of an alkali metal oxide and an alkaline earth metal oxide, and at least one of aluminum oxide and silicon oxide.