Development of Adsorption Separation Processes for Production of Renewable Energy Sources

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The rising cost of crude oil, combined with the depletion of the resources for energy, political instability in oil producing countries, and the desire to reduce the current dependence on imported oil are some of the reasons that have motivated different waves of interest for renewable and sustainable fuels. The production of sustainable and renewable fuels as a replacement for petroleum-based fuels is the subject of unprecedented research that is greatly supported by governments. In this project, the focus will be on the production of natural gas and bio-butanol from renewable sources, as follows: Natural gas is mainly composed of methane (CH4) and can be obtained from landfill gas, which is composed of CH4 and CO2 gases at almost in equimolar concentrations with a bit of N2 gas and moisture. CH4 needs to be separated from these gases and purified before it can be used as natural gas. Therefore, the separation of CH4, CO2 and N2 gases under dry conditions, as well as humid conditions are going to be the focus of this proposed study. Bio-butanol is the next generation of bio-fuels that can be obtained from the fermentation of agricultural by-products and is now attracting as much interest as ethanol and biodiesel as a renewable bio-fuel. However, the production of bio-butanol is facing important engineering challenges. The main one is the low final butanol concentration at the end of fermentation due to butanol toxicity for microorganisms used to convert sugars into butanol. This low concentration has a direct impact on the efficiency and economics of bio-butanol recovery. It needs to be separated and further purified so that it can be sold commercially. In this project, separation and recovery of bio-butanol both in the liquid and vapour phases will be investigated.