Production of Fuel Bioethanol Using 2-Step Pressure Swing Absorption Process

2단계 PSA(Pressure Swing Absorption) 공정을 이용한 연료용 바이오에탄올 생산

Recently, comsumption of fossil fuel is causing many problems(oilflation, global warming, environmental pollution). For this reason Renewable energy is now becoming the center of interest as a solution to these problems. Bioethanol, especially, is able to substitute petroleum as fuel; making it a viable and promising renewable energy. In order to production of fuel bioethanol, Dehydration process is essential. Azeotropic distillation, extractive and pressure swing absorption(PSA) process are some of possible dehydration process, out of which, PSA process is attractive since it required less energy and lower setup cost. In this study, we produced fuel bioethanol using 2-step PSA(3 bed + 2 bed) process for more efficient and economical process. Through this study, we produced fuel bioethanol using 2-step PSA process and concentration of fuel bioethanol was 99.54wt%(feed ethanol: 92.4wt%). We expected that because of efficient use of absorbents(zeolite), 2 step PSA process contribute to economical operation.