Separation of water-ethanol mixtures by sorption, Part 2

Technical Report · Sun Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

OSTI ID:6661660

Hone, R W; Lamarchand, M; Malaty, W

As an alternative to distillation for concentrating fuel-grade ethanol from dilute aqueous solutions, adsorption from solutions at room temperature was studied using two sorbents: a Rohm and Haas copolymer resin (Amberlite XAD-4) and a proprietary molecular sieve). Both adsorption and desorption (in the latter case with N/sub 2/) were performed in a packed column. Breakthrough-curve analysis indicated that the adsorption capacities matched expectation at the higher flow rates (0.13 g EtOH/g XAD-4 and 0.1 g EtOH/g molecular sieve. The elution performance was disappointing in that the ethanol passed through a maximum concentration of only 43 wt % ethanol for XAD-4, and 65 wt % for the molecular sieve. Based on the low ethanol concentrations in the liquid condensed from the eluate, it was concluded that there was significant water adsorption on both sorbents and that the feasibility of the process is severely compromised by this fact.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Oak Ridge, TN (USA). School of Chemical Engineering Practice
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 6661660
• Report Number(s): ORNL/MIT-304
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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ADSORBENTS
ALCOHOLS
COLUMN PACKING
DATA
DESORPTION
ETHANOL
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLOW RATE
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
LOADING
MATERIALS HANDLING
MOLECULAR SIEVES
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PACKINGS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
POLYMERS
REMOVAL
RESINS
SORPTION
SORPTIVE PROPERTIES
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TIME DEPENDENCE
WATER
WATER REMOVAL