SCREENING OF DIFFERENT ADSORBENT MATERIALS FOR BIO-BUTANOL SEPARATION

The Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation was a consolidate process to produce butanol during the first half of the last century but its modern industrial success is hindered by several issues. The selection of a technology for recovering low-concentration butanol from fermentation broth that is characterized by high recovery/selectivity performance and low energy request is a key issue for a successful bio-butanol production process. Several recovery processes were analysed in the literature and the adsorption was found to be very promising. This contribution reports on the butanol recovery by means of adsorption. The focus was on the selection of the adsorbent to maximize the butanol recovery. Three materials were characterized in terms of solvent adsorption capacity: Amberlite XAD7, Amberlite XAD4 and Zeolite Y.