Simulação do processo de adsorção psa para separação da mistura etanol-água / Simulation of the adsorption process psa for separation of ethanol-water mixtures

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

04/07/2011

RESUMO

One of the problems with ethanol production is the high energy cost which is associated with the separation of ethanol due to of excess water and the existence of an azeotrope in the mixture ethanol-water, by conventional distillation the mixture can be separated up to 95% weight. Currently, there is great interest in the development of technological processes to improve the necessary separation techniques in order to isolate the product obtained in ethanol fermentation. Conventionally, the techniques employed for final purification after conventional distillation are azeotropic distillation and extractive distillation. Although the relative importance of adsorption processes has increased in recent years as a result of increased development of adsorption process and the invention of molecular sieves. Thus, the PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) technique as a process of improved thermal efficiency has become an alternative in the azeotropic distillation. However, the design and analysis of a PSA system represents a difficult task due to the large number of parameters involved in the numerical simulation. Therefore, it is of great importance the commercial use of simulators in this research process. This study analyzed dynamics of the PSA process for the dehydration of ethanol with zeolite 3A by means of its commercial simulator software Aspen Adsim. It estimated that the parameters of the Langmuir isotherm and mass transfer coefficient given by LDF based on experimental data from the literature, furthermore, it established the complete PSA adsorption cycle. The conditions were similar to those used in the industry and have been established by means of the simulator, Cycle Organizer tool, the following for basics steps: adsorption, depressurization, purge and pressurization in a total time of 11,5 min to two adsorption beds. A steady state was reached - CSS around 383 cycles, with a purity of 99.4%, 92.9% of recuperation and 46.83 l/hr/kg of productivity. A parametric study also was done to investigate the effects of adsorption pressure, the concentration of water in food, feed flow, the of the Langmuir isotherm parameters and mass transfer coefficient - MTC for two adsorption beds under the percentage of purity, recovery and productivity. Through this analysis it was verified that all processes variables are significant in the studies response variables. While the MTC parameter found that is a susceptible parameter and depend on the resistances of transfer and, therefore, has to be estimated from experimental data. The effects of design variables such as diameter and length of bed visibly influenced the productivity of this process. In conclusion the simulator Aspen Adsim has been presented as a useful tool for dynamic simulation of adsorption process

ASSUNTO(S)

adsorption zeolites dehydration simulação por computador Álcool adsorção zeolitas desidratação computer simulation ethanol

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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