Abstract
A bioethanol downstream process yielding a high-purity product is proposed based on extraction using an environmentally friendly deep eutectic solvent (DES: menthol and decanoic acid at a molar ratio of 1:1) and on extractive distillation using ethylene glycol for ethanol refinement. The liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) thermodynamic model was derived using experimental results, and the vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) model was defined using molecular simulation results. The reliability of the molecular simulation was evaluated by comparing the simulation results with the prediction results derived using the experimental data for a DES system similar to the one used in this study. Heat integration was applied for reducing energy consumption by designing an optimal heat exchanger network with pinch technology. The energy requirement of the proposed process was 19% lower than that of the average reported in several previous studies. The production costs per unit of product were comparable to those of the reported processes, but the utility cost was substantially lower.
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