title: Experimental investigation of bioethanol liquid phase dehydration using natural clinoptilolite.
abstract: An experimental study of bioethanol adsorption on natural Iranian clinoptilolite was carried out. Dynamic breakthrough curves were used to investigate the best adsorption conditions in bioethanol liquid phase. A laboratory setup was designed and fabricated for this purpose. In order to find the best operating conditions, the effect of liquid pressure, temperature and flow rate on breakthrough curves and consequently, maximum ethanol uptake by adsorbent were studied. The effects of different variables on final bioethanol concentration were investigated using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The results showed that by working at optimum condition, feed with 96% (v/v) initial ethanol concentration could be purified up to 99.9% (v/v). In addition, the process was modeled using Box-Behnken model and optimum operational conditions to reach 99.9% for final ethanol concentration were found equal to 10.7 °C, 4.9 bar and 8 mL/min for liquid temperature, pressure and flow rate, respectively. Therefore, the selected natural Iranian clinoptilolite was found to be a promising adsorbent material for bioethanol dehydration process.
authors.affiliation: Biosystem Engineering Department, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-336, Iran.
authors.forename: Samira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karimi
authors.affiliation: Biosystem Engineering Department, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-336, Iran.
authors.forename: Barat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ghobadian
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Department, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-143, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad-Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Omidkhah
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Department, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-143, Iran.
authors.forename: Jafar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Towfighi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 117585, Singapore; Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran 15875-4413, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tavakkoli Yaraki
keywords: Adsorption; Bioethanol; Box–Behnken model; Clinoptilolite; Dehydration; Isotherm