Experimental study of the production of high purity ethanol using a semi-continuous extractive batch dividing wall distillation column

Abstract

In this paper, the production of high purity ethanol using an experimental dividing wall distillation column using glycerol as entrainer is studied considering batch and semi-continuous operations. In the semi-continuous distillation, an ethanol-water mixture of composition 92% wt. ethanol was introduced in the pot and the glycerol was supplied through a continuous feed near to the top of the distillation column, it was possible to produce a distillate with a composition higher than 99% wt. ethanol. This result is important since it is possible to use this ethanol mixed with gasoline in the current motor vehicles operated with gasoline.