The development of polymer-zeolite composite as a molecular sieve for water removal in bio-ethanol
Abstract
This specials project studied the develop polymer-zeolite composite as a molecular sieve for water removal in bio-ethanol. This composite pellets were prepared by extrusion method using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as an organic binder. The TGA results show that the decomposition temperature of PVP is higher than that of PVA. All PVP-Z pellets show a higher decomposition temperature than 5PVA-Z. The XRD results of all pellets show peaks at 2θ values corresponding to the zeolite A crystalline and SEM images suggest that PVP binder acts like a glue to connect cubic zeolite A together, while PVA would form a fiber. According to breakthrough curve of all samples, where the adsorption temperature is at 80 °C and desorption at temperature is at 150 °C, show the water capacity at ~6%wt. After recyclability of 5 times, the water capacity remains unchanged. Upon changing the desorption temperature to 180 °C, the water adsorption capacity enhances to 10wt%. Furthermore, 10PVP1-Z and 5PVA-Z pellets maintain their structure and water adsorption capacity after 5 recycles, as confirmed by XRD and SEM.