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Recovery of butanol from model ABE fermentation broths using MFI adsorbent: a comparison between traditional beads and a structured adsorbent in the form of a film

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An Erratum to this article was published on 29 February 2016

Abstract

Butanol, a promising biofuel, can be produced by ABE (acetone, butanol and ethanol) fermentation using e.g. Clostridium acetobutylicum. However, the butanol concentration in the resulting broth is limited to only ca. 20 g/L due to the toxicity for the microorganisms. This low product concentration demands an efficient recovery process for successful commercialization of this process. In this study, a structured adsorbent in the form of steel monolith coated with a silicalite-1 film was prepared using the in situ growth method. The adsorbent was carefully characterized by SEM and XRD. The performance of the adsorbent was evaluated by performing breakthrough experiments at room temperature using model ABE fermentation broths and the performance was compared with that of traditional adsorbents in the form of beads. The structured silicalite-1 adsorbent showed less saturation loading time as compared to commercial binder free silicalite-1 beads, reflecting the different dimensions of the columns used, set by experimental constraints. Studies of the desorption process showed that by operating at appropriate conditions, butanol with high concentration i.e. up to 95.2 wt% for butanol–water model system and 88.5 wt% for ABE fermentation broth can be obtained using the structured silicalite-1 adsorbent. Commercial silicalite-1 beads also showed good selectivity but the concentration of butanol in the desorbed product was limited to 70 % for the butanol–water model system and 69 % for ABE fermentation broth, probably as a result of entrained liquid between the beads.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Formas, the Swedish Energy Agency, VINNOVA, Smurfit Kappa and Bio4Energy, a strategic research environment appointed by the Swedish government, for financially supporting this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Technology, Luleå University of Technology, 971 87, Luleå, Sweden

    Abrar Faisal, Ming Zhou, Jonas Hedlund & Mattias Grahn

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  1. Abrar Faisal
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  2. Ming Zhou
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  3. Jonas Hedlund
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  4. Mattias Grahn
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Correspondence to Abrar Faisal.

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Faisal, A., Zhou, M., Hedlund, J. et al. Recovery of butanol from model ABE fermentation broths using MFI adsorbent: a comparison between traditional beads and a structured adsorbent in the form of a film. Adsorption 22, 205–214 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-016-9759-z

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