The Azeotropic Distillation for Bioethanol Purification: The Effects of Entrainer Solvents

Abstract

Bioethanol is one of the most interesting biofuels in Indonesia. In the recent years, various research studies on bioethanol production have been reported. The main problem using bioethanol as alternative energy is the refining process. In this paper, we report on our effort to increase the purity of bioethanol. The effects of different entrainer combinations were investigated. Based on our study, we found that the double entrainers combination generated better ethanol purity compared to a single entrainer. Among the possible combinations of entrainer, the combination of 10% (v/v) n-Heptane on cyclohexane-n-heptane could increase ethanol purity up to 87.39%.