Energy-efficient heat pump-assisted pre-concentration integrated with sequential [EMIM][BF4] and ethylene glycol-based extractive distillation for enhanced recovery of ethanol and isopropyl alcohol from wastewater

Recovering ethanol and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) from wastewater offers significant economic and environmental advantages. In this work, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([EMIM][BF4]) 4 ]) and ethylene glycol (EG) are proposed as double entrainers for separating IPA/ethanol/water mixtures. The novel process sequentially uses [EMIM][BF4] 4 ] to separate ethanol/water and IPA/water azeotropes, followed by EG for near-boiling mixture of ethanol/IPA. Energy-economic comparisons of extractive distillation process using single and double entrainers are performed. To address the issue of high water content in mixtures, the heat pump-assisted pre- concentration (HPP) integrated with extractive distillation processes are proposed. Subsequently, the effect of water content in the mixtures on process performances are analyzed. The results indicate that compared to using a single entrainer [EMIM][BF4] 4 ] or EG process, the double entrainers process reduces energy cost and total annual cost (TAC) by 19.9% to 45.3% and 18.6% to 52.7%, respectively. The HPP scheme effectively reduces the mole fraction of water from 60% to 26.05%, further decreasing energy costs by 4.2% to 22.2%. The energy cost and TAC of the double entrainers process decreases by 4.8% to 50%, and 2.8% to 52.1% compared with the single entrainer process under HPP schemes. The double entrainers [EMIM][BF4]-EG 4 ]-EG process shows promising prospects from energy and economic perspectives.