(453e) Bio-Alcohol Recovery from Aqueous Solutions with a Resistant and Formulated MOF Material

Alcohols, such as biobutanol, form a promising alternative to fossil-based chemicals and fuels, since they can be produced from renewable sources. The economical production of biobutanol, however, still faces several challenges, including its separation from the aqueous mixture in which it is produced by fermentation. Among the different separation techniques adsorption was identified as the most energy-efficient candidate. In a previous study, we studied a wide range of porous materials, like zeolites, active carbons and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), for their capability to isolate biobutanol from its fermentation medium. We found that the MOF ZIF-8, a member of the Zeolite Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIF) family, shows promising properties, such as a large butanol adsorption capacity, a high selectivity towards butanol over side-products, the exclusion of water from its pores and, easy regeneration and desorption [1].

The ZIF-8 MOF material offers perspectives for the economical and low energy intensive production of biobutanol. A key aspect towards the implementation of ZIF-8 into an actual separation process is its formulation into a resistant structure while maintaining its promising features. As a consequence, in this work, various resistant pellets were produced, by combining polymer binders with ZIF-8 powder under different conditions. The stability of the pellets under acid-base, hydrothermal and long-term storage (3 years) was tested as well as their adsorptive properties under dynamic and static conditions in liquid and vapor phase. Furthermore the pellets were characterized with argon and mercury porosimetry. The results of these different experiments will be shown in this presentation and compared to the binder-free ZIF-8 pellets and powder material. It will be demonstrated that the formulation of the ZIF-8 material resulted in resistant pellets without altering its promising adsorptive properties.

[1] Cousin Saint Remi, J., Remy, T., Van Hunskerken, V., Van de Perre, S., Duerinck, T., Maes, M., De Vos, D., Gobechiya, E., Kirschhock, C.E.A., Baron, G.V. and Denayer, J.F.M. Biobutanol Separation with the Metal-Organic Framework ZIF-8. ChemSusChem 4, 1074-1077 (2011).