THE EFFECT OF FUSION TEMPERATURE, AGING TIME AND AGING TEMPERATURE TO THE WATER ADSORBENT SYNTHESIZED FROM SPENT BLEACHING EARTH TO PURIFY ETHANOL-WATER MIXTURE
Description
Water adsorbent to dehydrate water ethanol mixture was synthesized from spent bleaching earth (SBE) using modified fusion method. The SBE was regenerated by heat at 750C. Alumina (Al2O3) was added to SBE with 80 g alumina per 100 g SBE. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) was added to SBE with stoichiometry ratio of KOH: SBE of 1.1 then mixed and fused at temperature 650C and 550C for 12 hours in a furnace. The fused mixture was grounded and mixed with water at 65 g H2O per 100 g SBE. This mixture was aged at 60C and 80C in an oven before crystallization took place in 5 parts by weight 5% KOH for 48 hours. The product obtained was washed 3 times with distilled water using filtration set and dried in oven at 220C for 20 hours. Full multilevel factorial experiments were carried out. Analysis of the results by using Minitab Release 14 Statistical software revealed that the main effect of fusion temperature and aging time was significant. The analysis also showed that there was significant interaction effect of fusion temperature to aging time and aging temperature. The best conditions to synthesize the water adsorbent were: 550°C of fusion temperature, 80°C of aging temperature and 3 days of aging time with water uptake of 0.0353 g H2O / g water adsorbent, approximately to 84% of commercialized of zeolite 3A.