Development of Adsorption Separation Processes for Production of Renewable Energy Sources

原油成本的上升，加上能源资源的枯竭，石油生产国的政治不稳定，以及减少目前对进口石油依赖的愿望，是激发对可再生和可持续燃料的不同兴趣的一些原因。生产可持续和可再生燃料作为石油燃料的替代品，是各国政府大力支持的前所未有的研究课题。在该项目中，重点将放在从可再生资源生产天然气和生物丁醇上，如下：天然气主要由甲烷（CH4）组成，可以从垃圾填埋气中获得，该填埋气由几乎等摩尔浓度的CH4和CO2气体以及少量N2气体和水分组成。CH4需要从这些气体中分离出来并净化，然后才能用作天然气。因此，在干燥条件下，以及潮湿条件下的CH4，CO2和N2气体的分离将是本研究的重点。生物丁醇是下一代生物燃料，可以从农业副产品的发酵中获得，现在作为一种可再生生物燃料，它与乙醇和生物柴油一样吸引了人们的兴趣。然而，生物丁醇的生产面临着重要的工程挑战。主要原因是由于丁醇对用于将糖转化为丁醇的微生物的毒性，发酵结束时最终丁醇浓度低。这种低浓度对生物丁醇回收的效率和经济性具有直接影响。它需要被分离和进一步纯化，以便可以商业销售。在本项目中，将研究液相和气相中生物丁醇的分离和回收。

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.