Premium
Biosorptive distillations to purify isopropanol: improvements over the current process in terms of energy consumption and exergy
Author(s) -
Sun Jinsheng,
Wang Wenping,
Wang Pei,
Luo Xubo,
Shi Ming,
Gao Hong,
Ren Xiaojing
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.1773
Subject(s) - distillation , process engineering , adsorption , biosorption , exergy , chemistry , pulp and paper industry , process (computing) , acetone , environmentally friendly , chromatography , waste management , computer science , organic chemistry , engineering , sorption , ecology , biology , operating system
ABSTRACT The removal of water from certain organic solvents via ordinary distillation requires several equilibrium stages if the organics are sufficiently concentrated, because the equilibrium curve for isopropanol–water is near the operating line, whereas acetone–water mixtures form a tangent pinch. In contrast, biosorption is only competitive when small quantities of adsorbate are removed. To overcome the drawbacks of both ordinary distillation and biosorption, a biosorptive distillation process was suggested for purifying 99.7 wt% isopropanol from a feed containing small amounts of water. Adsorption/regeneration experiments were conducted to investigate the breakthrough time and reusability of the adsorbent. The Ritchie equation, which fits the adsorption experimental data well, was embedded into the modified process simulation. Most of the water was removed via the adsorption part, which reduced its influence on the distillation. Compared to current commercial process, biosorptive distillation leads to a 25.4% reduction in the total energy and an overall exergy loss of 28.9% relative to absorbent regeneration. Furthermore, less than 1 year is required to recover the additional investment of the modified process. The proposed process can be both environmentally friendly and energy efficient. © 2013 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.