Modified adsorbents, Ag+-exchanged resins, have been
prepared and studied for ethane/ethylene
separation by adsorption. On Ag+-exchanged Amberlyst
35 (36.5% exchange) at 25 °C and 1
atm, the equilibrium adsorbed amount for C2H4
is 1.48 mmol/g, and the equilibrium adsorption
ratio for C2H4/C2H6 is
6.4. The adsorption capacity is completely restored at 100−105
°C,
although small residual amounts exist after desorption at 25 °C and
75 °C. For the adsorption
encompassing both physical adsorption and π-complexation with energy
heterogeneity, the
equilibrium data are correlated with an equilibrium isotherm equation
employing two fitting
parameters. The fitted results agree well with the experimental
data. Furthermore, the isosteric
heats of adsorption and the diffusion time constants are calculated
from experimental data.
Considering all adsorption characteristics, these adsorbents show
potential for application
employing cyclic adsorption processes.
In order to see the effect of CO(2) inhibition resulting from the use of pure oxygen, we carried out a comparative fed-batch culture study of polyhydroxybutyric acid (PHB) production by Ralstonia eutropha using air and pure oxygen in 5-L, 30-L, and 300-L fermentors. The final PHB concentrations obtained with pure O(2) were 138.7 g/L in the 5-L fermentor and 131.3 g/L in the 30-L fermentor, which increased 2.9 and 6.2 times, respectively, as compared to those obtained with air. In the 300-L fermentor, the fed-batch culture with air yielded only 8.4 g/L PHB. However, the maximal CO(2) concentrations in the 5-L fermentor increased significantly from 4.1% (air) to 15.0% (pure O(2)), while it was only 1.6% in the 30-L fermentor with air, but reached 14.2% in the case of pure O(2). We used two different experimental methods for evaluating CO(2) inhibition: CO(2) pulse injection and autogenous CO(2) methods. A 10 or 22% (v/v) CO(2) pulse with a duration of 3 or 6 h was introduced in a pure-oxygen culture of R. eutropha to investigate how CO(2) affects the synthesis of biomass and PHB. CO(2) inhibited the cell growth and PHB synthesis significantly. The inhibitory effect became stronger with the increase of the CO(2) concentration and pulse duration. The new proposed autogenous CO(2) method makes it possible to place microbial cells under different CO(2) level environments by varying the gas flow rate. Introduction of O(2) gas at a low flow rate of 0.42 vvm resulted in an increase of CO(2) concentration to 30.2% in the exit gas. The final PHB of 97.2 g/L was obtained, which corresponded to 70% of the PHB production at 1.0 vvm O(2) flow rate. This new method measures the inhibitory effect of CO(2) produced autogenously by cells through the entire fermentation process and can avoid the overestimation of CO(2) inhibition without introducing artificial CO(2) into the fermentor.
Commercial type X zeolites (Linde 13X) are nitrogen selective. Oxygen is the less abundant component in air; hence oxygen selective sorbents are desired for air separation. Mixed Na-Ce type X zeolites containing different ratios of Ce 3+ /Na + ions are prepared by partial ion exchange of commercial X zeolite. The adsorption isotherms of nitrogen, oxygen and argon are measured and the pure-component selectivity ratios are compared and analyzed against commercial zeolites (13X) for air separation. Oxygen selectivity over nitrogen (∼1.5) and argon (∼4.0) are seen for mixed Na-Ce type X zeolite (Si/Al = 1.25; Ce 3+ /Na + < 4.0) from Henry's constant determined from low pressure adsorption measurements. The oxygen and nitrogen isotherms cross over for mixed Na-Ce type X zeolite (Si/Al = 1.25; Ce 3+ /Na + < 4.0), and the pressure at which cross they over increases as Ce 3+ /Na + approaches 1. The oxygen selectivity as claimed in the patent by N.V. Choudary, R.V. Jasra, and S.G.T. Bhat (US Patent no. 6,087,289, 2000) is seen only at very low pressures in the volumetric adsorption measurement and the hydrogen treatment of the Ce-exchanged samples have no effect on the adsorption characteristics.
The esterification reaction of acrylic acid (AA) with 1,4‐butanediol (BD) to produce 4‐hydroxybutyl acrylate (HBA) was carried out in a batch reactive distillation mode over the Amberlyst 15 catalyst. The reactive distillation was highly desirable to increase the reaction rate of BD and eventually to obtain the high purity of HBA because the unreacted BD was not easily separable to the produced HBA after the reaction. The reaction pressure below 760 mm Hg was used to remove the by‐product water from the reaction zone. The air‐bubbling operation was successfully applied to prevent the polymerization of reactants and products under the vacuum condition (400 ∼ 760 mm Hg). The reaction rates were strongly dependent on the reaction pressure, especially, the reaction rate of BD disappearance. The increased reaction rate of BD by the reactive distillation enabled to produce a high purity of HBA.
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