-The aim of this work is to simulate and analyze an extractive distillation process for azeotropic ethanol dehydration with ethylene glycol and calcium chloride mixture as entrainer. The work was developed with Aspen Plus® simulator version 11.1. Calculation of the activity coefficients employed to describe vapor liquid equilibrium of ethanol -water -ethylene glycol -calcium chloride system was done with the NRTL-E equation and they were validated with experimental data. The dehydration process used two columns: the main extractive column and the recovery column. The solvent to feed molar ratio S/F=0.3, molar reflux ratio RR=0.35, number of theoretical stages Ns=18, feed stage Sf=12, feed solvent stage SS=3, and feed solvent temperature TS=80 ºC, were determined to obtain a distillate with at least 99.5 % mole of ethanol. A substantial reduction in the energy consumption, compared with the conventional processes, was predicted by using ethylene glycol and calcium chloride as entrainer.

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This review outlines ethanol dehydration processes and their most important characteristics. It also deals with the main operating variables and some criteria used in designing the separation scheme. A differentiation is made between processes involving liquid-steam balance in separation operations and those doing it by screening the difference in molecule size. The last part presents a comparison between the three main industrial processes, stressing their strengths and weaknesses from the operational, energy consumption and industrial services points of view.