Avaliação do desenvolvimento de uma coluna de destilação para obtenção de álcool etílico combustível a partir da fração de cabeça da produção de cachaça.

Abstract

The production of cachaca in Brazil exceeds one billion liters per year and it is, therefore, the third most consumed distilled beverage in the world and the first in Brazil. This production generates residues or by-products, such as the head fraction of the distillation or head cachaca which has an alcohol concentration of around 60% (v/v). In this way, this paper aims to add value to this by-product through its purification so that it can be used as ethanol fuel. It was designed and built a packed distillation column with 1,85 m tall and 10 cm in diameter stainless steel operating in batch. We used glass spheres of 1,85 cm in diameter to form the 1,5 m tall packed section. We analyzed the pressure drop, temperature profile and alcohol concentration in order to understand the distillation column behavior. The results showed that the proposed distillation column was able to produce ethanol fuel at an alcohol concentration averaged 94% (v / v) from an alcoholic solution of feeding 52% (v / v) leading thus to an efficiency of 70%.