Analysis of ethanol dehydration using membrane separation processes

Conde‐Mejía, Carolina; Jiménez‐Gutiérrez, Arturo

doi:10.1515/biol-2020-0013

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Even though the EtOH can be purified by distillation, purity higher than 95.6 wt.% EtOH cannot be achieved with conventional distillation, due to the EtOH-H 2 O azeotrope [5]. Among the challenges in second-generation bioethanol production, the main ones are financially achievable pretreatment for the deconstruction of lignocellulosic structure and the optimisation of enzymes to maximise fermentable sugar yields [3]; the dehydration step also represents a major challenge in bioethanol production plants [6], due to its high energy demand [4]. To achieve fuel-grade purity of 99.60 wt.%, numerous technologies are available, like pressure swing adsorption (PSA) [7,8], membrane separation [6], and extractive, azeotropic, and pressure swing distillation [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among the challenges in second-generation bioethanol production, the main ones are financially achievable pretreatment for the deconstruction of lignocellulosic structure and the optimisation of enzymes to maximise fermentable sugar yields [3]; the dehydration step also represents a major challenge in bioethanol production plants [6], due to its high energy demand [4]. To achieve fuel-grade purity of 99.60 wt.%, numerous technologies are available, like pressure swing adsorption (PSA) [7,8], membrane separation [6], and extractive, azeotropic, and pressure swing distillation [4,5]. The latter has an advantage among the distillation techniques, since it does not depend on an entrainer to separate the EtOH-H 2 O azeotrope [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The latter has an advantage among the distillation techniques, since it does not depend on an entrainer to separate the EtOH-H 2 O azeotrope [5]. Membrane separation has the same advantage, besides its low energy consumption, but requires a high capital investment [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Waste Lignocellulosic Biomass as a Source for Bioethanol Production

Rola,

Gruber,

Goričanec

et al. 2024

Sustainable Chemistry

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Synthetically produced biofuels play a critical role in the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Biofuels could effectively lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contribute to better air quality. One of these biofuels is bioethanol, which could act as a gasoline replacement. For this purpose, a simulation of bioethanol production through lignocellulosic biomass fermentation, focused on distillation, was carried out in simulation software Aspen Plus. Since the possibility of absolute ethanol production through distillation is limited by the ethanol–water azeotrope, pressure swing distillation (PSD) was used to obtain fuel-grade ethanol (EtOH) with a fraction of 99.60 wt.%. The flowsheet was optimised with NQ analysis, which is a simple optimisation method for distillation columns. We found that the PSD has the potential to concentrate the EtOH to a desired value, while simultaneously removing other unwanted impurities whose presence is a consequence of pretreatment and fermentation processes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Waste Lignocellulosic Biomass as a Source for Bioethanol Production

Rola,

Gruber,

Goričanec

et al. 2024

Sustainable Chemistry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, they convince with several advantages in their application, such as high selectivity, the moderate cost-to-performance ratio, avoidance of entrainers, steady-state operation, and compact and modular design [7]. However, the membrane has to be selected carefully with respect to the desired separation and the stability of the membrane materials at the anticipated operating pressure and temperature [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zero-Discharge Process for Recycling of Tetrahydrofuran–Water Mixtures

2021

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The sustainable design of separation and polymer synthesis processes is of great importance. Therefore, an energy-efficient process for the purification of tetrahydrofuran (THF)–water (H2O) solvent mixtures from an upstream polymer synthesis process in pilot scale was developed with the aim to obtain high purity separation products. The advantages and limitations of a hybrid process in the pilot scale were studied utilizing an Aspen Plus Dynamics® simulation at different pressures to prove the feasibility and energy efficiency. For the rough separation of the two components, distillation was chosen as the first process step. In this way, a separation of a water stream of sufficient quality for further precipitations after polymer synthesis could be achieved. In order to overcome the limitations of the distillation process posed by the azeotropic point of the mixture, a vapor permeation is used, which takes advantage of the heat of evaporation already used in the distillation column. For the purpose of achieving the required low water contents, an adsorption column is installed downstream for final THF purification. This leads to a novel hybrid separation process that is energy efficient and thus allows also the use of the solvents again for upstream polymer synthesis achieving the high purity requirements in a closed-loop process.

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“…Initially, pervaporation was intended for the selective separation of azeotropic mixtures. Currently, its application extends to various areas of industry, standing out in the extraction of aromas (alcohols, esters, organic compounds) from agro-food systems (wastes, by-products, fruit juices, food processed products), ethanol removal from alcoholic drinks towards the production of non-alcoholic beverages [ 11 ], development of chemical (water removal: esterification, acetalization, ketalization, etherification) and bio-chemical reactions (alcohol production) [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ], dehydration of organics (methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, butanol) [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ] and waste water treatment [ 23 ]. Pervaporation can be coupled to fermentation creating a hybrid pervaporation-fermentation process, which is used to recovery the bioproduct, such as acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) [ 24 ], butanol [ 25 ], and ethanol [ 26 ], in order to eliminate inhibition products, further improvement on product productivity and enhancement of the substrate conversion rate [ 27 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Separation and Semi-Empiric Modeling of Ethanol–Water Solutions by Pervaporation Using PDMS Membrane

et al. 2020

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High energy demand, competitive fuel prices and the need for environmentally friendly processes have led to the constant development of the alcohol industry. Pervaporation is seen as a separation process, with low energy consumption, which has a high potential for application in the fermentation and dehydration of ethanol. This work presents the experimental ethanol recovery by pervaporation and the semi-empirical model of partial fluxes. Total permeate fluxes between 15.6–68.6 mol m−2 h−1 (289–1565 g m−2 h−1), separation factor between 3.4–6.4 and ethanol molar fraction between 16–171 mM (4–35 wt%) were obtained using ethanol feed concentrations between 4–37 mM (1–9 wt%), temperature between 34–50 ∘C and commercial polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane. From the experimental data a semi-empirical model describing the behavior of partial-permeate fluxes was developed considering the effect of both the temperature and the composition of the feed, and the behavior of the apparent activation energy. Therefore, the model obtained shows a modified Arrhenius-type behavior that calculates with high precision the partial-permeate fluxes. Furthermore, the versatility of the model was demonstrated in process such as ethanol recovery and both ethanol and butanol dehydration.

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Analysis of ethanol dehydration using membrane separation processes

Cited by 17 publications

References 38 publications

Waste Lignocellulosic Biomass as a Source for Bioethanol Production

Waste Lignocellulosic Biomass as a Source for Bioethanol Production

Zero-Discharge Process for Recycling of Tetrahydrofuran–Water Mixtures

Separation and Semi-Empiric Modeling of Ethanol–Water Solutions by Pervaporation Using PDMS Membrane

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