A catalyst consisting of a sulfated cobalt promoter on gamma-Al2O3 was prepared and utilized in a gas chromatograph (GC) injector liner to investigate the dehydration of alcohols. The activation energy barrier for the dehydration of the test compound, 2-butanol, was determined to be 83 kJ/mol (under the given experimental conditions), the process obeying pseudo-first order kinetics. The chromatographic retention behavior of dichloromethane was used as a means of probing the catalyst surface. Changes in the retention of the molecule, as a function of the injection port temperature, were found to correlate with differences in the catalyst surface hydration. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.