Biobutanol has characteristics similar to petroleum fuel and is considered as a superior biofuel compared to ethanol. The development of technologies for biobutanol production by fermentation has resulted in higher final biobutanol concentrations together with less energy-intensive separation and purification techniques. These new technological developments have the potential to provide a production process for biobutanol that is economically viable in comparison to the petrochemical pathway for its production. The control properties of four different possible process designs for biobutanol purification are analyzed. The results, using the singular value decomposition technique, indicated that the scheme where only biobutanol flow is purified, and both ethanol and acetone leaving the purification process mixed with water and biobutanol traces, showed the best control properties.

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