Energy efficient ethanol recovery by adsorption

Abstract

A method and system for recovering a volatile organic compound from a dilute aqueous phase. The method may include separating volatile organic compound from the aqueous phase by using carrier gas to generate a solvent-laden vapor stream, feeding a solvent-laden vapor stream to a mass of carbon adsorbent and enabling the solvent to be absorbed and separated from the solvent-laden vapor stream, releasing the absorbed volatile organic compound, and condensing the released volatile organic compound to form a condensate. The system may include a vapor phase source containing ethanol, at least one carbon bed containing a mass of coconut shell carbon, a steam source in fluid communication with the carbon bed, and a condenser in fluid communication with the carbon bed. The method and system may also utilize microbeads as an absorbent and may be configured so the capacity is scalable from lab scale to production scale.