EFFECT OF FACTORS ON THE ADSORPTION PROCESS TO PRODUCE ABSOLUTE ALCOHOL

摘要

Increasing concerns the soaring price of petroleum products together with the depletion of fossil fuels have prompted considerable research to identify alternative fuel sources. Bio-Ethanol is one of them. Ethanol is widely used as a blending agent with gasoline to boost octane and at the same time reducing carbon monoxide and other toxic smog-causing emissions. Raw-ethanol (94-96%V) was dehydrated before utilizing as fuel by the adsorption of water using zeolite molecular sieve. The adsorption for dewatering of ethanol was performed on the fix bed systems in laboratory and pilot scale (100 liters per day). The spherical adsorbents were produced, and the adsorption system was constructed at Institute of Chemistry, Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology (ICH-VAST). The studied factors are the kind of used adsorbent, the temperature of adsorption and desorption processes. The results show that the best kind of used adsorbent is 3A zeolite because it has the most suitable pore size. The best temperature of adsorption and desorption processes are 115°C and 400°C, respectively. The obtained alcohol has the average concentration is about 99.7%V. The obtained results are the basic of ethanol production on the industrial scale in developing countries.