Dehydration of ethanol by facile synthesized glucose-based silica.

Abstract

Bioethanol is considered a potential liquid fuel that can be produced from biomass by fermentation and distillation. Although most of the water is removed by distillation, the purity of ethanol is limited to 95-96 % due to the formation of a low-boiling point, water-ethanol azeotrope. To improve the use of ethanol as a fuel, many methods, such as dehydration, have been proposed to avoid distillation and improve the energy efficiency of extraction. Glucose-based silica, as an adsorbent, was prepared using a simple method, and was proposed for the adsorption of water from water-ethanol mixtures. After adsorption using 0.4 g of adsorbent for 3 h, the initial water concentration of 20 % (water, v/v) was decreased to 10 % (water, v/v). For water concentrations less than 5 % (water, v/v), the adsorbent could concentrate ethanol to 99 % (ethanol, v/v). The Langmuir isotherms used to describe the adsorption of water on an adsorbent showed a correlation coefficient of 0.94. The separation factor of the adsorbent also decreased with decreasing concentration of water in solution.

• Authors: Baokun Tang, Wentao Bi, Kyung Ho Row
• Journal: Applied biochemistry and biotechnology (Appl Biochem Biotechnol) Vol. 169 Issue 3 Pg. 1056-68 (Feb 2013) ISSN: 1559-0291 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 23299980 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Ethanol
• Silicon Dioxide
• Glucose

Topics

• Dehydration
• Ethanol (chemistry)
• Glucose (chemistry)
• Silicon Dioxide (chemistry)