Abstract
Adsorption processes are characterized by their kinetics and equilibrium isotherms described by mathematical models. Nowadays, adsorption with molecular sieves is a method used to separate certain elements or molecules from a mixture and produce hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, ethanol, or water treatment. This study had two main objectives. The first one was focused on the use of different natural (Clinoptilolite-S.L. Potosi, Clinoptilolite-Puebla, and Heulandite-Sonora) and synthetic (Zeolite Type 3A) adsorbents to separate the mixtures H 2 O / H 2 S O 4 and H 2 O / C 2 H 5 O H . It was determined that both Zeolite Type-3A and Heulandite-Sonora have greater adsorption capacity in a shorter time compared with the Clinoptilolites at different temperatures. The second objective was the simulation of a pressure swing adsorption process to dehydrate ethanol using the parameters obtained from Zeolite Type 3A (with maximum adsorption capacity). Several configurations were considered to calculate the appropriate nominal values for the optimal process. The results illustrate that the purity of ethanol is increased when the following parameters are considered in the adsorption process: a high pressure, a constant temperature between 100 and 120 ° C, a feed composition near the azeotropic point with lower water content, and a purge pressure near the vacuum. Finally, the results show that it is possible to take advantage of the length of the absorber bed in order to reduce the energy costs by increasing the ethanol production as well as complying with the international purity standards.
Highlights
Zeolites can be used as separating agents for a mixture of two or more elements
The operation of each bed is batchwise, the whole system is continuous because of the use of multiple beds that are operated in a cyclic steady state within a confined cycle time
This paper presents a desiccator method to separate the mixture H2 O/H2 SO4 and fixed bed adsorber at bank scale to separate the mixture H2 O/C2 H5 OH, and favorable results were obtained
Summary
Zeolites (natural and synthetic) can be used as separating agents for a mixture of two or more elements. Some of their main characteristics for use as adsorbents are: selectivity on the element. There are many works found on the used of zeolites to adsorb water molecules [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. García-Soto et al [12] presented an experimental study of a Na-A synthetic zeolite used for separation of the H2 O/C2 H5 OH mixture, at temperatures of 120 and 140 ◦ C , and at each of them different compositions by weight of ethanol: 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 97%, and 99%. The product obtained is not corrosive, pollutes on a smaller scale and is renewable because it comes from fermentation of biomass (bagasse from sugarcane and other natural plants)
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