Analysis of the Energy Efficiency of some Butanol Recovery Processes

This work presents an energetic analysis of three butanol recovery processes from acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation broth. The processes were based on: 1) gas stripping, 2) liquid-liquid extraction, and 3) supercritical extraction. Material and energy balance simulations were carried out by commercial software Aspen Plus®. Processes were characterized in terms of energy efficiency and specific energy requirement. Operating conditions – e.g. gas stripping flow rate and solvent flow rate - were investigated and optimized with respect to the energy objective functions.