The catalytic activity on the coprecipitated Cu-ZnO-Al2O3/Zr-ferrierite (CZA-ZrFER) with different Zr content from 0 to 5 wt.% was investigated for the direct synthesis of dimethylether (DME) from H-2-deficient and biomass-derived model syngas (H-2/CO molar ratio = 0.93). The catalytic functionalities, such as CO conversion and DME selectivity, showed their maxima on the bifunctional catalyst with 3 wt.% Zr-modified ferrierite. Detailed characterization studies were conducted on the catalysts to measure their properties such as surface area, acidity by temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia (NH3-TPD), reducibility of Cu oxide by temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), copper surface area measurements by N2O titration method, electronic states of copper by IR analysis and particle size measurement by XRD and TEM analysis. The number of acid sites measured by NH3-TPD on the bifunctional catalysts decreased monotonously with the increase of Zr content, meanwhile, the acidic strength is found to be minimal on the catalyst showing best performance. The reducibility of copper oxide and the surface area of metallic copper also exhibited their maximum values at the same Zr composition indicating that these are responsible for the optimum functionality of the bifunctional CZA-ZrFER catalyst. The role of easily reducible copper species with small particle size and the suppressed strong acidic sites is also emphasized in the consecutive reaction from syngas to DME on the bifunctional catalyst. The different behavior of intrinsic rate of the bifunctional catalysts is also well correlated with the metallic surface area of copper and the amount of acidic sites with their acidic strength. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.