Separation of the Mixture 2-Propanol + Water by Heterogeneous Azeotropic Distillation with Isooctane as an Entrainer

Abstract

Advanced processes, which are alternatives to ordinary distillation, are essential to dehydrate azeotropic alcoholic mixtures for biofuel production. In that regard, this work focuses on the analysis of heterogeneous azeotropic distillation for the separation of a 2-propanol + water mixture in order to recover the alcohol with a sufficiently low water content. By comparing the performances of various entrainers on the basis of ternary maps, isooctane was selected for further process analysis. An advantage it poses is related to the fact that traces of it within the recovered dehydrated alcohol are highly welcome with a view to its subsequent use as a fuel. Aspen Plus® V11 software was employed for the simulation of the process, thus filling the gap existing in the literature due to the lack of studies on the process analysis of the heterogeneous azeotropic distillation of the 2-propanol + water system using isooctane as an entrainer.

Waste to H2 Sustainable Processes: A Review on H2S Valorization Technologies

“…The high acid and sour gas content of these types of raw gases must be lowered to meet commercial natural gas specifications [3][4][5]. Waste-to-chemicals technologies are gaining attention because of growing concerns about emissions and of the widespread diffusion of circular economy concepts [6,7].…”

Heterogeneous Azeotropic Extractive Coupled Heat Pump Distillation for Triethylamine‐Dichloromethane‐Acetone‐Water

“…Azeotropic distillation (AD), extractive distillation (ED), and pressureswing distillation (PSD) are usually applied to separate azeotropes [1][2][3][4][5]. The decanter (phase separator) is generally employed to separate the azeotrope phase and then reflux into the tower in heterogeneous azeotropic distillation (HAD) [6][7][8][9] and is mainly used in the dehydration of organic solvents.…”

Isobaric Vapor–Liquid Equilibrium Data for the Isopropanol–Water System

“…These processes involve mixtures containing alcohols and water, which make the downstream processing expensive and, for many mixtures containing alcohols, a potentially difficult separation challenge due to the formation of azeotropes. Another system of this type is the one involving isopropanol and water …”

“…Isopropanol–water separation started to raise interest early in the last century and has been then studied in recent years to develop efficient methods to obtain pure isopropanol. Several processes have been suggested such as azeotropic distillation, , pressure swing distillation, a single unit of pervaporation membrane or multistage arrangements for the dehydration of isopropanol under adiabatic and ideal isothermal conditions, liquid–liquid extraction, reactive distillation, adsorption, the adoption of ionic liquids for breaking the azeotrope, and extractive distillation through deep eutectic solvents, also known as low transition temperature mixtures (LTTMs). − …”

“…Another system of this type is the one involving isopropanol and water. 5 Nowadays, isopropanol (2-propanol, also known as isopropyl alcohol, IPA), is a solvent and an intermediate for chemicals production. For example, it is used for the production of monoisopropylamine and isopropyl acetate both as a solvent and as an intermediate.…”