Heat Transfer Enhancement in Separation Process of Ethanol from Ethanol Water Mixture by Using Surfactants

Here the investigations are done while distillation of ethanol-water mixture for separating ethanol from fermentation process. Focus is to study reduction in time required and hence saving in energy for the distillation process of ethanol-water mixture under the influence of surface-active agents (Surfactants). This novelty is from observation of these surfactants to enhance heat transfer rate because of surface tension reduction in aqueous solutions. SDS (Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate), NH4Cl (Ammonium Chloride) and SLBS (Sodium lauryl benzene sulphonate) surfactants in different concentration are experimented. The concentration of these surfactant is varied from 1700 ppm to 2800 ppm. This range is decided by observing critical micelle concentration of used surfactants. Results showed that time is reduced and hence energy consumption is also reduced. Results shown by NH4Cl are found to be more useful as it is ecofriendly surfactant which is not affecting ethanol-water mixture. Use of ammonium chloride as surfactant in distillation is actually useful to reduce energy without hampering the quality of process is the novelty of this work.