Separating ethanol-propanol-butanol-water systems using Aspen
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I’ve only been working with Aspen for a short time, and I’ve run into this challenge: separating an ethanol-propanol-butanol-water mixture. I’ve tried various approaches, but nothing worked; I hope experts in chemical engineering can offer some guidance and suggestions
LZ, is this academic research or process development? It seems to be the separation of ABE after biomass conversion; if that’s the case, I can provide you with some references.
Propanol and the other components do not form an azeotrope, so they can be separated directly. Ethanol and water form an azeotrope; the ethanol-water azeotrope is distilled at the top of the tower, while a butanol-water-ethanol mixture is obtained from the side stream in the tower. Further stripping should allow ethanol to be vaporized. If the butanol content is relatively high, it can come out from the bottom of the tower.