Kajian Proses Pemurnian Etanol-Air dengan Metode Dehidrasi Cair dan Uap Menggunakan Zeolit Alam Modifikasi

Abstract

One of the problem that occur in this time related about ethanol substitution for gasoline is hard to get ethanol in high purity (fuel grade ethanol) or ethanol with more than 99.5 % (v/v) in concentration. Dehydration process to get high purity of ethanol that doing today needs more development. One of the method is using the Modification Natural Zeolite (ZAM) so that the general objective of this research that is for improve purity of ethanol by dehydration using Modification Natural Zeolite (ZAM) and the specific objective is to determine the best condition on the activation process of zeolite based on the activation type and size of the zeolite (mesh 4/8 and mesh 16/18) in terms of the specific surface area and iodine. And to determine the best conditions of ethanol dehydration process based on consentration of mixture feed (85%(v/v), 90%(v/v), and 95%(v/v)), processing time of dehydration (1 hour, 1,5 hour, and 2 hour) and the type of contact between ethanol-water mixture and zeolite (vapor adsorption and liquid adsorption) in terms of the concentration of ethanol produced. Result of the research that has been done is use natural zeolite modification with combined activation methods of physics and chemistry, the high concentration of ethanol produced is 99.7% when the processing time is 1 hour and the concentration of ethanol feed is 95% (v/v) on the method of dehydration of ethanol-water mixture steam.