DEHYDRATION OF ETHANOL WATER SOLUTION USING ACTIVATED STARCH. A RESEARCH PROJECT TOPIC ON CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
ABSTRACT
This project research work was based on dehydration of ethanol water solution using activated starch. The extracted starch obtained was of whistler method. The starch obtained from potato was weighed with the use of a weighing balance, 0.1gram of activated starch weighted for eight times. The 0.1 gram of activated starch was put in a different test tube. About 20mg of ethanol was measured and added to the 0.1gram of activated starch, with two different concentrations of 10% and 50% respectively which was put on test tube track and then placed on the water bath and was allowed to run for 30 minutes and 60 minutes respectively. The result obtained from the experiment was seen to be more palatable with the use of potatoes starch as the major absorbent. It was observed that the lower concentration of ethanol-water mixture led to decrease in the refractive index of the water-ethanol mixture. The dehydration method employed was of a huge advantage due to its effectiveness and ability to remove water from the mixture of ethanol and water. Due to the fact that the intermediate product of the activated starch were useful in the dehydration process, a good quality of ethanol was obtained which gave rise to the relevance of potato being put into use in terms of starch generation for industrial purpose. The research work as regards the materials used and the method of dehydration being employed, it was compared relatively to be more viable and feasible with other methods of dehydration. The amount put together to achieve the successful dehydration and anhydrous ethanol as quality product was estimated to be relatively cheaper compared to the other methods of dehydration
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Complication of a process for ethanol dehydration by fractional distillation arrives when the solution is in the vicinity of its azeotropic point (95.6wt% ethanol) where both compounds are not separable by fractional distillation. Azeotropic distillation is to bring ethanol concentration up to an anhydrous level is an energy intensive and required a use of toxic organic entraners such as benzene. As a result anhydrous ethanol is normally produced by distilling the solution until ethanol concentration of about 75 -90wt% is achieved and other techniques are employed after that remove water to a minusel level.
One of the energy efficient techniques widely used for dehydration of ethanol is adsorption and starchy and cellulose biomass are among several adsorbent that have been accepted that ethanol dehydration by adsorption requires less energy than the conventional azeotropic distillation it is also less energy consuming than adsorption using other adsorbent. For example the total energy consumed in dehydration of ethanol using cellulose was reported to be 2,873 kj/kg ethanol while the adsorption using calcium oxide (CaO) was 3,669kj/kg ethanol. Another attractive advantage of using biomass derived adsorbent is that when regeneration is not practical the spent adsorbent could be used as a feed stock for fermentation either for ethanol or biomass production. Deposition of starchy and cellulosic and environmental friendly due to their readily biodegradability.
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