DESIGN OF FUSEL OIL SEPARATION COLUMN USING HYSYS PROGRAM

Abdulrahim Khaled Sulaiman1 and G.A. Gasmelseed2

1

Industrial Research & Consultancy Centre, P.O Box 268 Khartoum-Sudan,

E-mail: abdorahim@hotmail.com,
2
University of Science and Technology, E-mail: gurash@hotmail.com
Received Nov. 2009, accepted after revision March 2010

 

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ABSTRACT
Fusel oil is a by-product of a distillation of ethyl alcohol from fermentation of molasses,
contains mainly C3-C5 alcohols. This fusel oil can be used as a solvent, antifoaming agent, or as
a fuel. However the most useful utilization of fusel oil as a raw material for producing higher
alcohols especially amyl alcohols. Amyl alcohols are the main components of fusel oil which
amount to 30-50% and have wide applications in many kinds of industries. These include
pharmaceutical and food industries, where it is used as a raw material for producing flavours.
The aim of this study is to design a distillation column for recovery of amyl, butyl, propyl and
ethyl alcohol from fusel oil. A hand calculation was first made and generalized through HYSYS
simulation program. The calculation results were compared with that of HYSYS program which
has given satisfied results.
The dimensions of the column were found to be of diameter 3.7 m, height 13.8 m, Number of
theoretical and actual stage 20, 37 respectively, Efficiency 54%, as shown in Tables (3), (6), and
(7).
Keywords: Fusel oil, Column design, HYSYS software

Sudan Engineering Society Journal, March 2010, Volume 56 No.54

53

DESIGN OF FUSEL OIL SEPARATION COLUMN USING HYSYS PROGRAM

1. INTRODUCTION
One of the main by-products of sugar
manufacturing is molasses, which contains
approximately 50% sugar and 50% other
constituents (water, various other organic
components and inorganic salts).Because of its
high sucrose content, a substantial portion of it
is used for the production of ethyl alcohol
through fermentation. The by-products of the
fermentation broth, which are more volatile
than the alcohol, are mainly aldehydes with
acetaldehyde being the principal component.
The aldehyde is removed, as a distillation top
product. The other by-products of the
distillation are the bottom product, which is
called fusel oil. It is composed of several
alcohols, primarily C3,C4 and C5 in form aliphatic
alcohols.
Approximately one liter of acetaldehyde and
five liters of fusel oil are obtained for every 100
liters of ethyl alcohol from the distillation [1]
1.1 Fusel oil:
The term "fusel" is from the German word for
"bad spirit"; the expression "foozle" known to
golfers, is probably from the same stem
(German dialect fuseln=work badly or slowly).
Fusel oil is a relatively viscous liquid with a dark
reddish color and a very unpleasant odor [1, 2]
1.2 Formation of fusel oil during fermentation
Fermentation is a complex biological process for
the production of alcohol. Not only ethanol is
produced during fermentation of sugar, but also
some higher alcohols are produced.
Fusel alcohol formation is a normal activity of
all yeast fermentations and its concentrations in
all alcoholic beverages showed a wide range of
concentrations.
The Factors affecting the formation of fusel
alcohols during fermentation:

54

i.

Materials like ammonium sulfate and urea

which are added to the mash are
converted to amino acids, which
considered being the main factor for
producing fusel alcohols.

ii.

The temperature of fermentation is

important, as higher temperature's
produces large quantities of fusel alcohols.

iii.

Lower PH increases formation of fusel

alcohols. [3]

1.3 Uses of fusel oil:

Fusel oil which is an oily liquid can be used as a
solvent, a fuel for supplying energy, and as
antifoaming agent [4]
Recent studies have shown that several
alternatives use for fusel oil are possible. For
example, amyl alcohol belongs to fine chemical
products with high addition value. Also the
acetic acid and butyric acid esters of fusel oil
have an economic value as chemicals for
flavours and fragrance manufacturing. [1]
Sudan has a considerable number of sugar
factories and that ethanol industries start to
flourish as ethanol is a renewable source of
energy and environmentally friendly. Hence a
considerable amount of fusel oil is expected to
be available.
1.4

OBJECTIVES

i. Simulation of a separation column using

fusel oil as a feed.
ii. Design of fusel oil distillation column using
hand calculation and confirm the result with
HYSYS software.
2.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1

Design of Distillation Column by hand

calculations:

The calculation was made [7], taking refined

fusel oil as a feed with the composition given in
Table1. The calculation results summarized in
Tables (2, 3).

Sudan Engineering Society Journal, March 2010, Volume 56 No.54

Table 1: Composition of refined fusel oil (Feed) [6]

Components
Amyl alcohol
Butyl alcohol
Propyl alcohol
Ethyl alcohol

Percentage Wt/Wt
61.02
8.82
1.70
28.46

Table 2: Results of the material balance (in mole

fraction)
Composition
Amyl alcohol
Butyl alcohol
Propylalcohol
Ethyl alcohol

Feed
0.6102
0.0882
0.0170
0.2846

Top
0.000
0.192
0.058
0.746

Bottom
0.97
0.025
0.004
0.001

Table 3: Summary of the design

Parameter
Net cross-sectional area
Cross-sectional area
Down-comer area
Active cross-sectional
area
Hole area
Diameter of tower
Tray spacing
Tower height
Column efficiency
Actual plates
Theoretical plates
Type of trays

2.2

Value
10
11
1.3
8

Unit
m2
m2
m2
m2

Feed stream of fusel oil containing 61.02% amyl

alcohol, 8.82% butanol, 1.70 % propanol, and
28.46% ethanol entered the distillation column
at 1100C and 1.2 atm, flowing at a rate of 1.34
Km/hr. The simulation was performed as shown
below:
2.2.1 Initial setup:
General/ NRTL fluid package was used, and the
four chemical compositions were selected
(Figures 1, 2)
2.2.2. Setting up the distillation column:
Three process streams were selected; the feed
(stream1), the distillate (stream2), the bottom
(stream3), and two energy streams for the
reboiler and condenser. A distillation column
was placed from the simulation toolbar to the
simulation window and hooked up the process
streams to their appropriate locations (Figure
3).
2.2.3 Input Data:

1.1
m2
3.7
m
0.55
m
13.8
m
54%
37
Plates
20
Plates
Sieve trays

SIMULATION

Process simulation can be performed by using

commercial softwares like pro/11, chemicad,
Aspen and Hysses .In comparison to software
developed for simulating specific unit
operations, commercial softwares have many
advantages: for instant, they make possible to
simulate simultaneously several unit operations
as well as providing comprehensive data bank
for
calculation
and
estimation
of
physiochemical properties [8]. In this work the
software HYSYS [5] was used for simulating a
distillation column for recovering alcohols from
fusel oil.

The data shown in (Table 4) was set to the

distillation column.
2.2.4 Running the simulation:
After the distillation column and feed stream
were properly specified, the simulation was run
to simulate the distillation process as shown in
Figure 4.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Simulation Results
The simulation results for the column, used in
the recovery of the alcohols from fusel oil, are
shown in Tables (5), (6).
The top and bottom concentrations of the
substances are closed to those in hand
calculation Table 7, furthermore the software
could calculate the condenser and the reboiler
duty with volumes as shown in Table 5.
The results indicate that the use of the
commercial software produced satisfactory
results.

Sudan Engineering Society Journal, March 2010, Volume 56 No.54

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DESIGN OF FUSEL OIL SEPARATION COLUMN USING HYSYS PROGRAM

Figure 1: Fluid Package: Basis-1

Figure 2: Component List View: Component List - 1

Figure 3: The distillation column with the process streams placed to the simulation window.

56

Sudan Engineering Society Journal, March 2010, Volume 56 No.54

Table 4: Input Data:

1. Stream 1 (feed) specifications
Temperature
1100C
Pressure
1.2 atm
Total flow
1.34 kmole/hr

REFERENCES:
1.

Zeki Kucuk, Inon University, department of

chemical engineering, "Potential utilization
of fusel oil", Tur j chem., (1998), p 280-300

2.

Cedric Austin, University of London Press

LTD, "The science of wine", London, (1968).
P 95

3.

Ernest, C. H. Chen, The relative

contribution of Ehrlich and Biosynthetic
Pathways to the formation of fusel
alcohols, Molson Breweries of Canada
Limited, Montreal, J. Am. Soc. Brew. Chem,
1978. p 39, 40.

4.

Ibert
Melland,
"Industrial
solvent
handbook", Noyes data corporation,
NewJersy, USA, (1970). P 187

5.

HYSYS simulation program, 2002

hyprotec, a subsidiary of Aspen
Technology, Inc. USA

6.

Zhou Rougqi, department of chemical

engineering,
Tsinghua
University,
"Separation of active amyl alcohol and isoamyl alcohol".

7.

Coulson, J.M. and J. F Richardson,

"solutions to the problems in chemical
engineering volume 2", an introduction to
chemical engineering volume 6, (1985).

8.

Braz, J. Chemical engineering, Brazilian

Journal of chemical engineering, "Recovery
of Aroma compounds from Orange
Essential oil", Sao Paulao 2000.

Composition of the feed

Component
3-MET-01
1-PROP-01
ISOBUT-01
ETHANOL
2. Column specification
Number of stages
Feed stage
Reflux

Value (kmole/hr
0.8177
0.0228
0.1182
0.3814

Distillate rate

6.173 kg/hr

Condenser type
3. Pressure specifications
Condenser
Reboiler

Total

20
17
5.5

1.2 atm
1.2 atm

4. CONCLUSION
Fusel oil contains mainly four alcohols; they are
ethyl, propyl, butyl, and amyl alcohols. Various
unpleasant properties of fusel oil can be
removed and a substantial portion of the major
alcohol components can be separated by
distillation. Treatment of fusel oil is not difficult;
the separation is just by simple distillation.
Depending on physical and chemical properties
of fusel oil a design of a distillation column was
made. The same design was performed using
simulation HYSYS software.

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DESIGN OF FUSEL OIL SEPARATION COLUMN USING HYSYS PROGRAM

Figure 4: The distillation column simulation running

Tables 6: Streams result

0

Temperature C
Pressure kg/m s2
Vapor Frac
Mole flow lbmol/hr
Mass flow lb/hr
Volume flow cu m/hr
Enthalpy m2 kg/s2
Mole flow lbmol/hr
3-MET-01
1-PROP-01
ISOBUT-01
ETHANOL

58

Stream 1

Stream 2

Stream3

110.00000111
121589.9997
0.08603933
2.95419435
220.266027
3.085511
-0.3941636

83.0156366
121589.9997
0.0000
0.29541944
13.6098581
0.008805
-0.0342446

112.9585916
121589.9997
0.0000
2.65877491
206.656168
0.008805
-0.3639338

1.80264939
0.07149150
0.26055994
0.81949351

TRACE
<0.001
TRACE
0.2954075

1.80264939
0.07147963
0.26055988
0.52408601

Sudan Engineering Society Journal, March 2010, Volume 56 No.54

Table 5: Column specifications

Tray diameter
Tray space
Condenser duty
Number of stages
Condenser diameter
Condenser length
Condenser volume
Reboiler duty
Reboiler diameter
Reboiler length
Reboiler Volume

3.7 m
0.55 m
2
2
33704909.117 m kg/s
20
1.193 m
1.789 m
2 m3
2
2
2946990.975 m kg/s
1.193 m
1.789 m
2 m3

Feed stage temperature

Top stage temperature
Bottom stage temperature

90.366 C
81.4281460C
0
112.32546 C

Table 7: Streams Compositions

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DESIGN OF FUSEL OIL SEPARATION COLUMN USING HYSYS PROGRAM

Table 8: Compact comparison between hand and software calculations

Parameter
Number of stages
Reflux ratio
Feed stage
Feed temperature
Column diameter
Tray space
Composition

Feed

Top product

Bottom product

60

Hand-calculations
20
5.5
17
1100C
3.7 m
0.55

Software-calculations
20
5.5
17
90.50C
3.7 m
0.55

Amyl alcohol = 0.6102

Butyl alcohol l= 0.0882
Propyl alcohol=0.0242
Ethyl alcohol = 0.2774
Amyl alcohol = 0.000
Butyl alcohol l= 0.195
Propyl alcohol=0.058
Ethyl alcohol = 0.746
Amyl alcohol = 0.970
Butyl alcohol l= 0.025
Propyl alcohol=0.004
Ethyl alcohol = 0.001

Amyl alcohol = 0.6102

Butyl alcohol l= 0.0882
Propyl alcohol=0.0242
Ethyl alcohol = 0.2774
Amyl alcohol = 0.000
Butyl alcohol l= 0.000
Propyl alcohol= 0.000
Ethyl alcohol = 1.000
Amyl alcohol = 0.6780
Butyl alcohol l= 0.0980
Propyl alcohol=0.0189
Ethyl alcohol = 0.2051

Sudan Engineering Society Journal, March 2010, Volume 56 No.54