Recovery of Ethanol from Fermentation Broths by Catalytic Conversion to Gasoline

Abstract

The technical and economic feasibility of recovering ethanol from fermentation broths by catalytic conversion to gasoline was investigated. Reactions of diethyl ether, ethanol, and aqueous 95 wt % ethanol over a shape-selective zeolite catalyst were studied in terms of product distributions, and the effects of pressure, temperature, and space velocity were established. Higher pressure was found to decrease the amount of gaseous hydrocarbons produced, while increasing the space velocity had the opposite effect. An optimum temperature of 623 K was found to maximize the amount of liquid paraffins and aromatics with a corresponding minimum in gaseous hydrocarbons. No significant effect of the presence of water in the feed stream was observed. A preliminary analysis revealed that the proposed process could offer significant economic advantages over traditional processes of ethanol recovery. © 1983, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.