Drying Fuel Alcohols and Natural Gas with Biosorbents Based on Agricultural By-products

Saskatchewan is one of the key provinces in Canada to produce canola, flax, barley, wheat, and other agricultural products. In this research work, high performance bio-adsorbents will be formulated from the agricultural by-products for drying bio-alcohols and natural gas at low costs. These biosorbents are re-usable for dehydration and regeneration cycles. The exhausted biomaterials may be used for fuel bio-alcohols production through gasification or fermentation. The technology generated from this research will make it possible to dehydrate water containing bio-alcohols and natural gas to achieve fuels of high purity. Use of the biosorbents for this purpose will not require any new facility other than that in the molecular sieves process for drying bio-alcohols or natural gas in industry. In addition, in this research will the biosorbents be characterized. Investigation of adsorption kinetics and equilibrium will contribute to the knowledge of adsorption using biomaterials. Results obtained from this project are expected to provide important information on improving the performance of dehydration of bio-alcohols and natural gas in the current industry. The implementation of this technology will benefit partner industries as well as Sasktchewan agrucultural industries economically.

Faculty Supervisor:

Catherine Niu

Student:

Pravakar Mohanty

Partner:

Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission

Discipline:

Engineering - chemical / biological

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

University of Saskatchewan