Hashi, Mohamed2013-11-072013-11-0720102010Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 49-02, page: 1259.http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28549http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-12594In this research project, adsorption is used in conjunction with carbon dioxide stripping to increase the efficiency of ethanol production by decreasing the effect of the product inhibition. The reduction in product inhibition is particularly important when ethanol is produced from the lignocellulosic biomass because genetically-modified microorganisms able to use all fermentable sugars are less tolerant to ethanol. Carbon dioxide removes some ethanol from the fermentation broth and reduces the level of ethanol toxicity, while adsorption is used to recover the entrained ethanol from the vapour phase. A series of adsorption screening experiments were performed to compare four activated carbon adsorbents and two hydrophobic ZSM-5 type zeolites. One activated carbon (WV-B 1500) exhibited the highest ethanol capacity. Adsorption isotherms for ethanol and water in the presence of carbon dioxide at different temperatures were determined. The temperature-dependent Toth isotherm model provided satisfactory fits for these isotherms. Ethanol adsorption experiments with and without the presence of water were conducted and showed similar ethanol adsorption capacities indicating that the presence of water has negligible effect for ethanol adsorption. A mathematical model was developed to predict the adsorption performance of activated carbon WV-B 1500 for ethanol vapour adsorption in the presence of carbon dioxide and water. The model takes into account changes in velocity due to adsorption, heat effects during adsorption, and heat losses to the surroundings. The model was validated with experimental data. Finally the model was used to predict the adsorption working capacities to assess the performance of the adsorption process in an industrial process. An economic analysis was performed by comparing a simulated base case ethanol production plant with a similar process coupled with carbon dioxide stripping and adsorption technology. The process was modeled using Aspen HYSYS to perform material and energy balances. The packed bed adsorption system, operating as a temperature-swing adsorption (TSA) or a vacuum-swing adsorption (VSA) system, was simulated to evaluate the performance of the adsorption system and to size and cost the associated equipment. Preliminary results showed that the grass roots cost for the ethanol production process coupled with carbon dioxide stripping and adsorption technology for three different TSA (purge gas at 80, 100, and 120°C) and VSA (adsorption pressure at 0.5, 0.2, and 0.1 atm) systems were more cost effective than the base case ethanol plant.143 p.enEngineering, Chemical.Thesis