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Ethanol can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass through fermentation; however, some byproducts from lignocellulosics, such as furfural compounds, are highly inhibitory to the fermentation and can substantially reduce the efficiency of bio-ethanol production. The overarching goal of this study was to remove these fermentation inhibitors to enhance the performance of bio-ethanol production. In an effort to pursue the above-mentioned objective, the magnetite Al2O3/Fe3O4/ZrO2 Nano composites were utilized to remove the model fermentation inhibitor, furfural, from water solution. Characterization of the adsorbents was described in detail in terms of morphology, elemental composition, particle size and surface chemistry.
The morphological feature analysis of the adsorbent using SEM analysis showed that the nanocomposites have heterogeneous surface suitable for adsorption. The practically obtained percentage composition of Al, Fe and Zr in the synthesized Nano composites was 8.32, 89.04 and 2.64%, respectively. The surface structure of the material was investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), The result shows that the average crystallite sizes (D) of this Nano composite found in the range of (7.25-8.4 nm) and its max percentage of peaks was at ∼7.52 nm.
The batch adsorption tests were carried out using Furfural prepared in the laboratory. The prepared Furfural was characterized with qualitative colorimetric test and spectroscopic technique (GC-MS and FTIR) and both tests confirmed that the prepared furfural was actually furfural. The synthesized Nano sorbents showed 30 minutes of equilibrium time for maximum adsorption of furfural. The optimum dose (0.08 gm) of adsorbent was determined during the batch adsorption test. |
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