1In the present paper, selective water removal from butanol-water vapor mixture was 2 carried out in a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system using canola meal (CM) biosorbent. 3Five operating parameters (temperature, pressure, feed butanol concentration, feed flow rate, and 4 CM particle size) were studied by the orthogonal array design method and range analysis to 5 obtain the favorable process conditions for butanol drying. The performance of butanol 6 dehydration was evaluated using five indices -water uptake; butanol uptake; water selectivity; 7 butanol recovery; and maximum butanol concentration in the effluent. The obtained favorable 8 dehydration conditions resulted in the maximum effluent butanol concentration of >99 v/v%, 9 water uptake of 0.48 g/g-ads, water separation factor of 5.4, and butanol recovery of 90%. The 10 Dubinin-Polanyi model for large pores fit the water adsorption isotherms reasonably well. 11 Furthermore, site energy distribution of water adsorption was also estimated. Average site energy 12 (3.33 kJ/mol) and standard deviation of the site energy distribution (2.36 kJ/mol) were 13 determined and applied to analyze the interaction between the biosorbent and adsorbate, and 14 adsorbent surface energy heterogeneity. Saturated CM was regenerated at 110°C under vacuum 15 and reused for more than 16 cycles.16 17

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The kinetics of bioethanol production using mono‐ and co‐cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia stipitis with glucose, xylose, and glucose‐xylose sugar mixtures were investigated. A MATLAB® program was formulated for simulation of experimental results in order to get predicted values of ethanol production and sugar consumption and for kinetic parameter estimation. Kinetic parameters implied less extent of substrate and/or product inhibition when the co‐culture scheme of immobilized S. cerevisiae and free P. stipitis was employed for fermentation of mixed sugars. In addition, a high ethanol yield was achieved by applying this co‐culture strategy to wheat straw hydrolysates.