Abstract

This study examines the design and installation of a continuous ethanol distillation unit based on the heterogeneous azeotropic approach using n-heptane as the entrainer. This technique entails the dehydration of ethanol, by which, technically, bioethanol can be produced. An ethanol distillation unit was designed, using mainly stainless steel. Bubble caps were constructed for a column which consisted of 11 stages of bubble caps. The decanter design was used for organic reflux. A reboiler with an electric heater was used in the dehydrating column. The prototype design restricted the feed flow rates to 0.2 kg×mol/h of ethanol 95.0 mol%, using the mixed reflux between n-heptane and ethanol during distillation process. The experimental product gave an approximate maximum of 99.2 mol% of absolute ethanol.

Key words: Heterogeneous azeotropic distillation, ethanol dehydration, feed flow rate, entrainer flow rate, reflux flow rate.