An insight into the separation of 1, 2-propanediol, ethylene glycol, acetol and glycerol from an aqueous solution by adsorption on activated carbon

Fortea J. ; García L. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Ruiz J. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Oliva M. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Arauzo J. (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Glycerol conversion processes such as aqueous phase reforming and hydrogenolysis generate value-added compounds highly diluted in water. Because distillation is a high energy demand separation step, adsorption could be an attractive alternative to recover these chemicals. Adsorption isotherms of 1, 2-propanediol, acetol, ethylene glycol and glycerol onto activated carbon were determined by batch adsorption experiments. These isotherms were fitted slightly better to the Freundlich equation than to the Langmuir equation. Acetol is the compound with the highest adsorption at concentrations smaller than 1 M. Properties of the adsorbate such as the -OH group number, chain length, molecular size and dipole moment, besides characteristics of the adsorbent such as the surface area, oxygen and ash content, are considered to explain the observed results. Moreover, adsorption experiments were performed with mixtures of compounds and it was determined that the molar amount adsorbed is less than predicted from the adsorption isotherms of the individual compounds treated separately. In addition, the influence of the activated carbon thermal pretreatment temperature on the adsorption capacity has been studied, the optimum being 800¿C. An analysis of the influence of the activated carbon characteristics showed that the most important parameters are the total pore volume and the ash content. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.3390/pr9081438

Año: 2021

Publicado en: PROCESSES 9, 8 (2021), 9081438 [15 pp]
ISSN: 2227-9717

Factor impacto JCR: 3.352 (2021)

Categ. JCR: ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL rank: 69 / 142 = 0.486 (2021) - Q2 - T2

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 3.5 - Chemical Engineering (Q3)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.474 - Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous) (Q2) - Bioengineering (Q2)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/AEI-FEDER/CTQ2017-86893-R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA-FEDER/T22-20R

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Área Ingeniería Química (Dpto. Ing.Quím.Tecnol.Med.Amb.)
Área (Departamento): Área Tecnologi. Medio Ambiente (Dpto. Ing.Quím.Tecnol.Med.Amb.)