Abstract
Mixtures of acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE) are common intermediate products in the production of biofuels via biomass fermentation. Their separation to yield, for example, bio-butanol, is still difficult due to the lack of a fundamental understanding of these mixtures at the molecular level. In order to bridge this gap, a detailed analysis of characteristic features of the vibrational spectrum is carried out. A systematic study of the binary solutions of acetone with ethanol and butanol does not only reveal a universal behaviour at the molecular level when acetone is mixed with short-chain alcohols, it also shows that the phenomena at a length scale between the molecules and in the macroscopic solution need to be taken into account to understand the structure-property relationships. The size of self-associated molecule clusters seems to determine whether or not a system exhibits an azeotrope. When a second alcohol is added to an acetone/alcohol solution, no additional non-idealities are induced, which is advantageous for modelling ternary ABE mixtures and for improving their processing in the production of biofuels.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3846-3858 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | ChemPhysChem |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 18 |
Early online date | 21 Oct 2015 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 21 Dec 2015 |
Keywords
- azeotropes
- binary solutions
- excess spectroscopy
- infrared spectroscopy
- molecular interactions
- EXCESS MOLAR ENTHALPIES
- VAPOR-LIQUID-EQUILIBRIA
- PLUS BENZENE MIXTURES
- 298.15 K
- BINARY-MIXTURES
- REFRACTIVE-INDEXES
- DIPOLAR LIQUIDS
- HYDROGEN-BOND
- FREE-ENERGY
- CONCENTRATION-DEPENDENCE