Energy-efficient recovery of butanol from model solutions and fermentation broth by adsorption

Abstract

This article discusses the separation of butanol from aqueous solutions and/or fermentation broth by adsorption. Butanol fermentation is also known as acetone butanol ethanol (ABE) or solvent fermentation. Adsorbents such as silicalite, resins (XAD-2, XAD-4, XAD-7, XAD-8, XAD-16), bone charcoal, activated charcoal, bonopore, and polyvinylpyridine have been studied. Use of silicalite appears to be the more attractive as it can be used to concentrate butanol from dilute solutions (5 to 790-810 g L(-1)) and results in complete desorption of butanol (or ABE). In addition, silicalite can be regenerated by heat treatment. The energy requirement for butanol recovery by adsorption-desorption processes has been calculated to be 1,948 kcal kg(-1) butanol as compared to 5,789 kcal kg(-1) butanol by steam stripping distillation. Other techniques such as gas stripping and pervaporation require 5,220 and 3,295 kcal kg(-1) butanol, respectively.

Biobutanol from Renewable Agricultural and Lignocellulose Resources and Its Perspectives as Alternative of Liquid Fuels

“…The effects of operation temperature and feed solution concentration on membrane performances were studied [193]. A membrane with a silicalite-1 (its adsorption capacity for a mixture of acetone, butanol and ethanol were 8-12, 85-90 and <5 mg g ) on flux and selectivity was also studied [194].…”

“…In addition, silicalite could be regenerated by heat treatment. The energy requirement for butanol recovery by adsorption-desorption processes was 1,948 kcal kg butanol, respectively [130]. Milestone and Bibby [131] studied the usability of silicalite, which provided a possible economic route for the separation of alcohols from dilute solutions.…”

Capillary supported ultrathin homogeneous silicalite-poly(dimethylsiloxane) nanocomposite membrane for bio-butanol recovery

“…The most intensively studied materials include poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) [7][8][9][10], poly(1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne) (PTMSP) [11,12], and poly(etherblock-amide) (PEBA) [2,13]. PDMS is an "organic-inorganic" elastomeric material, often referred to as "silicone rubber", exhibiting excellent film-forming ability, thermal stability, chemical and physiological inertness [14].…”

Preparation of high selectivity silicalite-1 membranes by two-step in situ hydrothermal synthesis

“…Compared with NaA or FAU membrane, FMI (including ZSM-5 and silicalite-1) membranes are still prepared and used within different laboratories up to now, and this may be caused by the following reasons: one is the higher preparation cost compared with NaA or FAU membranes, and another reason is that MFI membranes should be calcined in order to remove the templates, and this often results in the formation of cracks, which decreases the separation performance of the as-synthesized membranes [11]. Furthermore, the low separation performance and low reproducibility may be the main reason to limit the preparation of MFI membranes in largescale [12].An important potential application of hydrophobic silicalite-1 membranes is the separation of organic compounds, such as ethanol, 1-butanol, and other fermentation products, from fermentation broth [13,14]. In this application, silicalite-1 membranes show higher separation performance than polymer membranes [15].…”

“…An important potential application of hydrophobic silicalite-1 membranes is the separation of organic compounds, such as ethanol, 1-butanol, and other fermentation products, from fermentation broth [13,14]. In this application, silicalite-1 membranes show higher separation performance than polymer membranes [15].…”