Abstract
The separation of ethanol, propanol, and butanol from aqueous solutions was studied using adsorption on bone char. Adsorption kinetics and thermodynamic parameters of this separation method were studied at different conditions of pH and temperature. Results showed that the maximum adsorption capacities of these bioalcohols were obtained at pH 6 and 20°C. An exothermic separation was identified, which can be mainly associated to hydrophobic interactions between bone char surface and bioalcohols. Binary adsorption studies were also performed using mixtures of these bioalcohols. An antagonistic adsorption was observed for all bioalcohols where the ethanol and propanol separation was significantly affected by butanol. A model based on an artificial neural network was proposed to correlate both single and binary adsorption isotherms of these bioalcohols with bone char. It was concluded that the bone char could be an interesting adsorbent for the sustainable separation and recovery of bioalcohols from fermentation broths, which are actually considered emerging liquid biofuels and relevant industrial chemicals.
Highlights
The reserves of conventional fuels are depleting due to their excessive exploitation, which is blamed for several environmental problems; some concerns have raised in geopolitical security of oil supply [1,2,3]
The recovery of ethanol, propanol, and butanol from aqueous solutions via adsorption on bone char was analyzed at different operation conditions
Bioalcohol adsorption was affected by both pH and temperature of aqueous solution where the maximum adsorption was achieved at pH 6 and 20°C
Summary
The reserves of conventional fuels are depleting due to their excessive exploitation, which is blamed for several environmental problems; some concerns have raised in geopolitical security of oil supply [1,2,3]. Biofuels are considered the most environmentally friendly energy source. Liquid biofuels have been studied as a future leading alternative of energy to replace fossil fuels [4]. Production of liquid biofuels includes a variety of approaches (e.g., sugar fermentation, cellulose hydrolysis, biomass pyrolysis and gasification, and oil esterification/transesterification) that differ in terms of their advantages and disadvantages, but all of them undoubtedly have a low environmental impact [4,5,6,7,8,9]. Liquid biofuels production can involve several steps where the purification and recovery of final products are relevant factors to compare and select the best process for commercialization and potential applications at industrial level [3]
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