US EPA

994977 

Book/Book Chapter 

Separation of butanol from acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation by a hybrid extraction-distillation process 

Kraemer, K; Harwardt, A; Bronneberg, Rob; Marquardt, W 

2010 

1 

Computer - Aided Chemical Engineering
ISSN: 1570-7946
EISSN: 2543-1331 

Elsevier 

Oxford, UK 

20th European symposium on computer aided process engineering 

28 

7-12 

English 

10.1016/s1570-7946(10)28002-1 

WOS:000287659500002 

is also published as 854967 Separation of butanol from acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation by a hybrid extraction–distillation process

The alternative fuel butanol can be produced via acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation from renewable resources, i.e. biomass. Expensive feedstocks and the high costs for the separation of ABE from the dilute fermentation broth in the downstream processing have so far prohibited the industrial-scale production of bio-butanol. The low productivities and butanol yields of ABE batch fermentation can be increased by continuous fermentation with cell recycle and integrated product removal. In order to facilitate an effective and energy-efficient product removal, we suggest to apply a hybrid extraction-distillation process with ABE extraction in an external column. The removal of ABE outside the fermenter in an extraction column is favored from an operational point of view. By means of computer-aided molecular design (CAMD), mesitylene has been identified as a new solvent for ABE extraction from the fermentation broth. The solvent properties of mesitylene are compared to those of oleyl alcohol, which is the most common solvent for ABE extraction. Subsequently, we propose a hybrid extraction-distillation downstream process for product removal and purification. It is shown that the specific energy demand of this process is significantly lower when mesitylene is used as extraction solvent instead of oleyl alcohol. 

butanol; extraction; solvent; biofuels; CAMD 

Pierucci, S; Ferraris, B 

Computer-Aided Chemical Engineering 

9780444535696 

20th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE) 

Ischia, Italy 

June 6-9, 2010