(180a) Achieve Process Intensification Using Simulated Moving Bed Technology

SMB (Simulated Moving Bed) technology has been successfully used in the petrochemical industry for almost half a century. Recently there has been developments in this technology in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and biofermentation industry. The principles of process intensification if applied to existing processes can lead to development and redesign of existing processes to become more sustainable. Advantages of using SMB technology over other traditional unit operations will be discussed in this presentation.

This presentation will discuss a process and an adsorbent for the separation of ethanol and associated oxygenates from a dilute mixture of ethanol and associated oxygenates in water in the presence of organic compounds derived from a biofermentation process. After pretreatment, the separation is carried out in a simulated moving bed adsorption system employing a stationary phase adsorbent comprising fluorinated carbon or modified C18 silica gel selective for the adsorption of ethanol and associated oxygenates, such as 2,3-butanediol, with a mobile phase desorbent selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, propanol, and methyl tertiary butyl ether.

An improvement to the above SMB process is also discussed in which increasing the number of raffinate streams alone or in combination with a hot regeneration zone within the SMB cycle can significantly reduce the capital and operating costs associated with the incorporation of the SMB process to produce ethanol and butanediol from biofermentation effluent. This process is an improvement over conventional distillation which is very energy intensive and not practical for dilute fermentation broths.

The process is useful for removing water from dilute aqueous mixtures of organic compounds comprising ethanol in dilute concentration in water and produced by fermentation, biomass extraction, biocatalytic, and enzymatic processes which are not economically recoverable by conventional distillation methods.