Distillation Process Research Articles

Effect of Brix Concentration and pH of Molassses Media on Ethanol Yield in The Fermentation Process at PT. Indo Acidatama. Tbk

PT. Indo Acidatama Tbk. is a company that produces ethanol. Ethanol is produced by fermentation using molasses derived from sugar processing waste. To get the optimal ethanol content, it can be determined from the yield produced, it is necessary to have effectiveness in the fermentation process. In this experiment, the fermentation process was carried out with variations in molasses concentration and pH. The aim was to determine the combination of brix concentration and molasses pH in producing the most effective ethanol yield. The concentration of molasses used was 16 obrix, 20 obrix and 24 obrix. While the pH used was 4, 5 and 6. In the determination of the ethanol content, the separation was carried out by a distillation process, then the distilled ethanol was tested using a spindle alcoholmeter and a chromatographic test was carried out using a Gas Chromatography type 6890N. After getting the ethanol content, the next step is to determine the yield by using the alcohol content calculation. The results of the chromatography test obtained samples of 24 obrix variations and pH 4, getting the highest concentration, which was 3.05%. From the calculation of alcohol content, the sample variation of 16 obrix and pH 5 got the highest yield value, with an average of 26.74. From the results of the Two-Way ANOVA calculation, it was found that obrix and pH had a significant effect on ethanol yield.

Valorization of Cheese Whey through Bioethanol Production and Probiotic Drink Development: A Sustainable Approach for Organic Waste Management

Cheese whey, a significant byproduct of the dairy industry, poses a substantial environmental challenge due to its organic pollutant load and large size demands for effective and affordable valorization methods. The abundance of lactose and other organic compounds in whey contributes to its elevated Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), further straining natural ecosystems. This study aimed to investigate the nutritional potential of whey and its conversion into value-added products: bioethanol and probiotic drinks. To achieve this, Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus subtilis strains, isolated from soil samples in Nepal, were co-cultured with Lactobacillus sp. and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the whey broth for fermentation. Ethanol distillation was done using a rotary evaporator to maintain the viability of the fermenting organisms in the broth. Moreover, the probiotic criteria of the fermenting strains were extensively examined. Experimental observations revealed a remarkable concentration of 9.2 g/L of ethanol, resulting in an ethanol yield of 0.23 g/L (42% compared to theoretical yield). Extrapolating this rate, it is theoretically possible to produce an annual global bioethanol output of 5 million tons using whey as a sustainable and abundant resource. Furthermore, the study explores novel advancements in the distillation process, demonstrating the successful extraction of ethanol at room temperature. Additionally, the fermentation organisms employed in this research exhibit robust viability, surviving various in-vitro stresstolerance tests, including temperature, bile salt, pH fluctuations, and gastric juice. These resilient strains also demonstrated long-term stability in fermented whey broth, making them promising candidates for the development of probiotic beverages. This dual approach enables sustainable management of organic waste and presents an opportunity to create value-added products with positive implications for the environment and human health.

Dynamic control analysis of energy-efficient side-stream extractive distillation process for separating close-boiling mixture

To separate the close-boiling mixture comprising heptane and toluene, this study introduces an environmentally-friendly method of side-stream extractive distillation by utilizing aniline as the separating agent. This approach modifies traditional extractive distillation by adding a side rectifier, converting two-way vapor and liquid communication into one-way liquid transfer using an additional distillation section along with corresponding reboiler. Our present study investigates the dynamic control behavior for a strongly non-ideal system without and with heat integration. It focuses on achieving stable and reliable regulatory control by closely keeping the dual-product composition to their original design standards. Key control loops are pinpointed, with a specific emphasis on those centered around adjusting reboiler heat duty and side-stream flow rate within extractive column C1 to regulate the temperatures of Stages 48 and 36. Furthermore, control effectiveness is enhanced by introducing a feedforward action of reboiler heat duty-to-feed flowrate. By developing a new and robust control architecture, high feed flowrate and composition disturbances can be managed efficiently, solving the issues of oscillation and large transient response.

Design and fabrication of a 20 kilogram capacity cassava-based bioethanol distillation apparatus with 2.4 liter bioethanol output

Background: The depletion of fossil fuel resources and growing environmental concerns have sparked interest in renewable energy sources like bioethanol. Cassava, an abundant crop in many tropical regions, shows promise as a feedstock for bioethanol production. This study aimed to design and fabricate an efficient small-scale distillation apparatus for producing bioethanol from cassava. Method: A distillation apparatus with 20 kg cassava capacity was designed and constructed using locally available materials. Key components included a distillation tank, condenser, cooling tower system, and burner. The apparatus was tested using fermented cassava mash to evaluate its performance in bioethanol production. Findings: The fabricated apparatus successfully produced 2.4 liters of bioethanol with 65% purity from 20 kg of cassava feedstock. Optimal distillation temperature was found to be 70°C, balancing ethanol yield and purity. Heat transfer calculations indicated 576 kW of cooling capacity was required in the condenser. The cooling tower system achieved 63% thermal efficiency. Conclusion: The designed distillation apparatus demonstrates the feasibility of small-scale bioethanol production from cassava. Further optimization of the distillation process and heat recovery systems could improve efficiency. This technology shows potential for decentralized biofuel production to meet local energy needs in cassava-producing regions. Novelty/Originality of this study: The study on designing small-scale distillation equipment for bioethanol production from cassava successfully demonstrated practical and affordable applications for decentralized biofuel production in cassava-producing areas.

AssistDistil for Medical Image Segmentation

Deep learning models have demonstrated significant effectiveness in addressing intricate object segmentation and image classification tasks. Nevertheless, their widespread use is impeded by high computational demands, limiting their applicability on resource-constrained devices and in contexts like medical image segmentation. This paper proposes AssistDistil, a semi-knowledge distillation technique designed to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from a larger teacher network to a more compact student model. During the inference process, the student model works in conjunction with the teacher model by condensing the teacher model’s latent information into its own latent representation, thereby boosting its representational capacity. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated for multiple case studies in medical image segmentation task of eye segmentation, skin lesion segmentation, and chest X-ray segmentation. Experimental results on the IIITD Cataract Surgery, HAM10000, PH2, Shenzhen and Montgomery chest X-ray datasets demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach both in terms of accuracy and computational cost. For example, in comparison to the AUNet-based teacher model, the proposed approach achieves a similar mIOU with only 0.5% of the model size. In the future, we plan to explore knowledge distillation approaches to improve the distillation process in case of large model capacity gap between teacher and student networks. With fewer parameters, we intend for the student model to attain performance comparable to that of the teacher model without additional assistance.

Karakterisasi Bioetanol dari Limbah Tandan Kosong Kelapa Sawit

At the moment, Indonesia still relies heavily on fossil fuels to cover its domestic energy demands. However, one of the main causes of the rise in greenhouse gas emissions is the nation's reliance on fossil fuels for energy damage to the environment. An alternate energy source is called bioethanol. The fermentation process of natural ingredients with the help of microorganisms, Bioethanol produced from biomass in this study is palm empty fruit bunches (PEFB) because of the cellulose content of 45.59% which can be converted into second-generation bioethanol. Poses for making bioethanol of PEFB through the process of pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, and distillation. The purpose of this study is to determine the characteristics of bioethanol produced by PEFB waste. Bioethanol characteristic testing refers to test standards determined by SNI 7390:2008/2013, This study produced ethanol content of 4.92% in 6-day fermentation that did not meet the specified standards, methanol content produced 0.4% in 10-day fermentation and had met the specified standards, water content in 4-10 days fermentation produced 25.56%-30.72% did not meet the specified standards, denaturant content in 10-day fermentation produced 9% had met the specified standards. The fermentation of 6 days produced the best condition, obtaining 4.92% ethanol content and 25% moisture content. Still, it did not meet the specific standards of SNI 7390:2008, but met the SNI standards for the methanol content of 0.4%, denaturant level of 11%, acidity of 0.3 mg /L, chloride ion levels of 0.7 mg /L, sulphur content of 0.68 mg /L, and the sap content of 7 mg / l.

“Putting Science into Action”: A Case Study of How an Educational Intermediary Organization Synthesizes and Translates Research Evidence for Practice

Background: Knowledge brokering by intermediary organizations includes knowledge distillation processes (e.g., synthesis, translation).Aims and objectives: This article explores how an educational intermediary performs research distillation when creating virtual knowledge reservoirs for educators.Methods: The authors use qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, coded to consensus, and thematically analyzed.Findings: During synthesis, intermediaries apply a “research lens” to evaluate the credibility of the evidence. During translation, they rely on their experience as educators to share evidence in a non-academic voice and generate “turnkey” strategies.Discussion and conclusion: The article considers the knowledge brokering pipeline fallacy and examines the potential of ongoing processes for improving the effectiveness of intermediaries with the aim of diminishing research-practice and research-policy gaps in education.

Mathematical Modeling of NaCl Scaling Development in Long-Distance Membrane Distillation for Improved Scaling Control.

Membrane distillation is a novel membrane-based separation technology with the potential to produce pure water from high-salinity brine. It couples transport behaviors along the membrane and across the membrane. The brine in the feed is gradually concentrated due to the permeate flux across the membrane, which is a significant factor in initiating the scaling behavior on the membrane surface along the feed flow direction. It is of great interest to investigate and estimate the development of scaling on the membrane surface. This work specifically focuses on a long-distance membrane distillation process with a sodium chloride solution as the feed. A modeling approach has been developed to estimate the sodium chloride scaling development on the membrane surface along the flow direction. A set of experiments was conducted to validate the results. Based on mathematical simplification and analytical fitting, a simplified model was summarized to predict the initiating position of sodium chloride scaling on the membrane, which is meaningful for scaling control in industrial-scale applications of membrane distillation.

Sustainable process design and multi-objective optimization of efficient and energy-saving separation of xylene isomers via extractive distillation based on double extractants

The focus of the chemical industry on environmental protection and energy conservation has driven the development of green distillation technology. Xylene isomers are extensively utilized industrial raw materials, whose separation is challenging and energy-intensive due to their closely similar boiling points. Therefore, it is urgent to develop energy-saving and environmental protection technology. In this paper, an energy-saving and environmental protection process for separating the xylene isomers by extractive distillation was designed combing the vapor recompression process with feed preheating (VRAPFP). The parameters of extractive distillation processes were synthetically optimized by multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) with total annual cost (TAC), CO2 emission (ECO2) and separation efficiency (Eext) as the objective evaluation indexes. The economical optimal process was used further for VRAPFP design through heat integration to reduce energy consumption, and all the designed candidate processes were synthetically analyzed, compared and evaluated with performance indexes. Results show that the VRAPFP process has superior economic efficiency and ecological sustainability compared with the existing distillation process, wherein the TAC and ECO2 are reduced by 14.2 % and 30.2 %, respectively. This work provides a new reference and idea for separating xylene isomers with the economy and developing new processes for energy conservation and environmental protection.

Elderberry Hydrolate: Exploring Chemical Profile, Antioxidant Potency and Antigenotoxicity for Cosmetic Applications

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) hydrolate, derived from domestic steam distillation, holds promise as a multifunctional ingredient for skincare and cosmetic applications. This study investigates the chemical composition and biological activities of elderberry hydrolate obtained through steam distillation. Despite the growing interest in elderberry hydrolate, there has been a lack of comprehensive studies elucidating its chemical composition and potential bioactive constituents. To address this gap, we conducted a detailed analysis of elderberry hydrolate’s composition, antioxidant activity, and antigenotoxicity. Genotoxic evaluation and antioxidant assays (ABTS, DPPH) were conducted to assess its biological properties. We obtained elderberry hydrolate with a notable transfer of aromatic compounds through the steam distillation process, highlighting its efficacy and sustainability. The chemical characterization identified vital compounds, including phenylacetaldehyde, 2-acetyl-pyrrole, and an unidentified major component, collectively contributing to the hydrolate’s aromatic and biological properties. The genotoxic evaluation using the Comet assay demonstrated the hydrolate’s protective effects against DNA damage induced by hydrogen peroxide and streptonigrin. The optimal DNA protection was observed at 10% (w/v), attributed to the antioxidant activity of the identified compounds. The hydrolate exhibited significant antioxidant potential, demonstrating concentration-dependent responses and correlating higher concentrations with increased antioxidant activity. These findings underscore the multifaceted attributes of elderberry hydrolate, positioning it as a promising natural ingredient for skincare. This study supports elderberry hydrolate as a valuable natural and sustainable product development resource.

Local Separation Performance for Distillation Processes in Rotating Packed Beds: Transferability and Applicability

Local Separation Performance for Distillation Processes in Rotating Packed Beds: Transferability and Applicability

Performance of capacitive deionizing membrane distillation (CDIMD) process for the organic sewage treatment and how operating parameters can affect it

To solve the fouling issue of traditional membrane distillation (MD) technique, a newly-designed hybrid purification system integrating capacitive deionization (CDI) with MD technology was established for the organic sewage treatment in this study, namely capacitive deionizing membrane distillation (CDIMD) technology. Complexes formation via cross-linking among protein, divalent cations, and polysaccharide, an archcriminal inducing MD fouling, was remarkably alleviated in the CDIMD system considering that negatively-charged organics were clearly divided away from those divalent cations in an electric field circumstance. The CDIMD performance was deeply explored in this study focusing on the impact mechanisms of core operational parameters. An appropriate increment of feed temperature (60–65 °C) and feed flow velocity (15.72–17.82 mm/s) contributed to the anti-fouling performance of CDIMD. Considering the side reactions at voltage >1.2 v, setting working voltage at around 1.2 v seemed to be optimal for CDIMD operation. With an overall consideration of pure water production and anti-fouling performance, a properly thicker CNTs layer (40–60 μm) efficiently enhanced the fouling mitigation of CDIMD. A frequent switching of electric field direction (9/1 min) facilitated the timely regeneration of electrode and composite membranes, accordingly promoting a reliable purification of organic wastewater by CDIMD technique.

Efficient purification of butanone and ethyl acetate from waste water by extractive distillation based on cost, thermodynamic and environmental analysis

Butanone and ethyl acetate are widely used in chemical production and separation. They are usually used together in actual production. Therefore, it also appears in the waste water. Butanone and ethyl acetate will inevitably form three binary azeotropes with water, rendering their separation very difficult. In this study a butanone/water/ethyl acetate ternary azeotropic system is separated by an extractive distillation process. The extractant is screened by relative volatility and toxicity analysis. The optimal process parameters are obtained based on a genetic algorithm by minimizing annual total cost, achieving an efficient separation of the butanone/water/ethyl acetate ternary azeotropic system. Based on the thermodynamic analysis of the extractive distillation process, the separation process is improved and optimized to achieve a maximum utilization efficiency of energy. The annual total cost and pollutant emissions are studied and analyzed. The optimized extractive distillation process can significantly reduce the energy consumption and pollutant emissions, improve the thermodynamic efficiency and economy. The efficient and energy-saving extraction distillation process based on thermodynamic analysis provides a viable option towards an environmentally benign industry.

Improved solution thermodynamics modeling in pervaporation

The current work features a system-level design of pervaporation processes (typically utilized to break azeotropes) that is solution thermodynamics-based (inclusive of validated excess thermodynamic properties). Unlike the standard pervaporation modeling methodology in the literature, the current method (referred to here as PervapS3) deconstructs the membrane module into its constituent units, and the material and energy flows were mathematically validated. These amendments to the previous methodology (i.e., leaf-wise modeling, mathematical validation, and inclusion of excess thermodynamic properties) revealed significant deviations in key parameter values. For a given large-scale pervaporation process dehydrating aqueous isopropanol, the total membrane area and energy requirement calculated were up to 22% and 19% less than the values calculated using the previous methodology. Moreover, due to the inclusion of excess thermodynamic properties in the PervapS3 method, the minimum separation work and the second law (thermodynamic) efficiency were up to 94% and 78% less. In other words, the previous pervaporation modeling methodology overestimated membrane area, energy requirement, minimum separation work, and second law efficiency. Considering a conventional azeotropic distillation process for comparison with pervaporation, it was observed that the simulation-based distillation models from the literature were inclusive of the system non-idealities. Per the previous method, the non-ideal second law efficiency of azeotropic distillation would be compared against the ideal second law efficiency of pervaporation, overestimating the latter. The non-ideal second law efficiency must be employed to facilitate a fairer and more accurate comparison of disparate separation technologies.

Efficiency increment of CFD modeling by using ANFIS artificial intelligence for thermal-based separation modeling

This study presents a comprehensive analysis of predicting the temperature in a vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process. The simulation was carried out via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as well as machine learning. CFD was performed for obtaining temperature distribution in the feed solution, and the calculated temperature was used for training several machine learning models. The dataset comprises over 13,000 observations, which provide a rich source for modeling complex relationships. Three sophisticated regression models were employed: Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), Kernel Ridge Regression (KRR), and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP). ANFIS was chosen for its hybrid nature, combining neural networks and fuzzy logic, effectively capturing intricate non-linear relationships in data. ANFIS performance in fitting the data was compared with the other models. Hyper-parameter optimization for these models was conducted using the Tabu Search algorithm to ensure optimal performance. The ANFIS model demonstrated superior performance with an R2 score of 0.9964513 on the training set and 0.9964507 on the test set, alongside a MSE of 0.037655 and a MAE of 0.168272. The robustness of ANFIS was further confirmed by a 3-fold cross-validation mean R2 score of 0.9964579 and a standard deviation of 3.3619616e−05.

ZIF-8 membranes for efficient C3H6 recovery from the Hydrogen Peroxide to propylene oxide process

The ZIF-8 membrane has emerged as a promising candidate for C3H6/C3H8 separation. However, the feasibility of ZIF-8 membranes for applications has rarely been investigated with gas provided directly by the industry sector. Herein, the C3H6/C3H8 mixture collected from the backend of the Hydrogen Peroxide to Propylene Oxide (HPPO) process was applied as feed gas to examine the separation performance of tubular ZIF-8 membranes. The membranes exhibited excellent separation performance and long-term stability under 9 bar and 50 °C. Noticeably, upon scaling up to a membrane area of 452.16 cm2 by connecting six three-channel modules in series (multi-step membrane), its separation performance satisfied the C3H6 circulation requirements during the HPPO process (purity ≥97.5 % and recovery rate ≥85 %). Furthermore, a simulation of membrane operation under industrial working conditions (22 bar and 56.3 °C) was performed. By fixing the separation factor at 15, a minimum membrane area of 800 m2 met the requirements at the cost of membrane permeance with 120 GPU. The corresponding economic calculation indicated a maximum of 91.8 % annual capital cost saving compared with the distillation process, paving the way for the practical application of membranes.

Energy saving technology design and multiple performance evaluation for the extractive distillation process to recover benzene and isopropanol from wastewater by mixed entrainer

In the industrial production of chloramphenicol, a ternary azeotrope consisting of isopropanol, benzene and water exists. A new process for the extractive distillation of recycling benzene and isopropanol from wastewater by mixed entrainer was proposed. Quantum chemical analysis and relative volatility analysis were employed to screen suitable entrainers. The multi-objective optimization scheme was established to determine the basic process parameters such as such as composition and ratio. Thermal coupled extractive distillation process and heat pump with an assisted extractive distillation process were used to improve energy saving. Subsequently, the interaction energy between the entrainer and the system was computed via molecular dynamics, and different processes are evaluated by economic analysis, environmental analysis, energy consumption analysis and exergy analysis. The results indicated that the optimal mixed entrainer under decompression pressure, it was 40.37 % dimethyl sulfoxide +59.63 % glycerol. The thermally coupled extractive distillation process 1 has the best economic benefits and has good thermodynamic efficiency and environmental advantages. Compared with ethylene glycol extractive distillation process, total annual cost is reduced by 16.93 % and gas emissions is reduced by 43.19 %.

Fouling Reduction and Thermal Efficiency Enhancement in Membrane Distillation Using a Bilayer-Fluorinated Alkyl Silane-Carbon Nanotube Membrane.

In this study, we report the robust hydrophobicity, lower fouling propensity, and high thermal efficiency of the 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane (FAS)-coated, carbon nanotube-immobilized membrane (CNIM) when applied to desalination via membrane distillation. Referred to as FAS-CNIM, the membrane was developed through a process that combined the drop-casting of nanotubes flowed by a dip coating of the FAS layer. The membranes were tested for porosity, surface morphology, thermal stability, contact angle, and flux. The static contact angle of the FAS-CNIM was 153 ± 1°, and the modified membrane showed enhancement in water flux by 18% compared to the base PTFE membrane. The flux was tested at different operating conditions and the fouling behavior was investigated under extreme conditions using a CaCO3 as well as a mixture of CaCO3 and CaSO4 solution. The FAS-CNIM showed significantly lower fouling than plain PTFE or the CNIM; the relative flux reduction was 34.4% and 37.6% lower than the control for the CaCO3 and CaCO3/CaSO4 mixed salt solution. The FAS-CNIM exhibited a notable decrease in specific energy consumption (SEC). Specifically, the SEC for the FAS-CNIM measured 311 kwh/m3 compared to 330.5 kwh/m3 for the CNIM and 354 kwh/m3 for PTFE using a mixture of CaCO3/CaSO4. This investigation underscores the significant contribution of the carbon nanotubes' (CNTs) intermediate layer in creating a durable superhydrophobic membrane, highlighting the potential of utilizing carbon nanotubes for tailored interface engineering to tackle fouling for salt mixtures. The innovative design of a superhydrophobic membrane has the potential to alleviate wetting issues resulting from low surface energy contaminants present in the feed of membrane distillation processes.

Thermally coupled distillation columns without vapor transfer – Current state and further needs

Reducing the energy requirements is one essential pillar in the effort to reduce the carbon footprint of the energy intensive chemical industry. Thermal coupling of distillation columns and the equipment-integrated implementation in dividing wall columns can be considered a mature and established technology to reduce the energy demand of distillation sequences. Despite the widespread investigations and applications, the vaporous transfer stream between thermally linked columns or vapor split in the dividing wall column is associated with certain limitations. Some of these can effectively be overcome by adding an additional column section with reboiler or condenser to the thermally linked column, converting the bidirectional transfer of liquid and vapor to a unidirectional liquid transfer, which mandates additional investment, but provides an additional degree of freedom and retains the energy saving potential of the thermally coupled sequence. Although these so-called Liquid-Only-Transfer (LOT) sequences have been introduced almost 25 years ago, the process concept is receiving an increasing interest in recent years, with specific focus on conceptual design and control studies. The current review provides a methodological overview on synthesis, design and control studies for LOT-sequences, considering zeotropic and azeotropic distillation processes. It analyzes the advantages and challenges of this interesting process concept and highlights research areas and questions that still require additional attention.

Evaluation of dimethyl carbonate production process from CO2 by rigorous simulation and detailed optimization

AbstractThe CO2‐derived dimethyl carbonate (DMC) synthesis process becomes greatly attentive but suffers high energy consumption in DMC distillation process. In this work, the DMC‐MeOH azeotropes separation process by pressure swing distillation and extractive distillation was compared, and key operating parameters, including the total number of trays and the feeding position of the mixture liquid, were optimized with the minimum total annual cost (TAC) as the objective function. On the basis of this optimization, economic evaluation of different distillation processes was conducted, and it was found that extractive distillation was more economical than pressure swing distillation. The application of the dividing‐wall distillation process upgraded by extractive distillation can significantly reduce the minimum annual total cost by 37.4% and 10.7% compared to the original pressure swing distillation and extractive distillation process, respectively. The optimization of relevant heat exchange network based on pinch technology resulted in energy consumption reduction by 27.2% and 25.9% for its hot and cold utilities, respectively. Carbon life cycle assessment (LCA) on the DMC distillation process revealed over 50% of energy as well as carbon emissions from steam consumption, whose reduction can significantly minimize CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and ultimate cost. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.