Separation of a Biofuel: Recovery of Biobutanol by Salting‐Out and Distillation |
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Authors: | Shaoqu Xie Xueqing Qiu Conghua Yi |
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Affiliation: | School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China. |
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Abstract: | The second generation biofuel butanol can be produced by acetone‐butanol‐ethanol (ABE) fermentation, but the separation from the broth is still challenging. Therefore, dipotassium hydrogen phosphate was investigated as salting‐out agent. The ABE fermentation broth was enriched by a prefractionator after being preheated. The enriched ABE solution was salted out by K2HPO4 solutions at different temperatures. The water in the supplemented ABE solution was largely removed by the salting‐out method. The energy requirements for the prefractionator and the butanol column were significantly reduced. The total energy demand for the recovery of acetone, butanol, and ethanol by salting‐out and subsequent distillation was optimized. With the salting‐out process, the entire salting‐out and distillation method turned out to be more energy‐saving than the conventional one. |
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Keywords: | Acetone Biofuel separation Butanol Distillation Ethanol Recovery Salting‐out |
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