STUDY ELECTROCOAGULATION PROCESS THE RESIDUAL VINAZA DISTILLERIES ETHYL ALCOHOL

Abstract

This work was carried out at the Technological University of Jamaica, as part of one of the research being conducted jointly with the Chemical Engineering faculty of Santiago de Cuba, in search of solutions to cost-effectively reduce corrosion of metal equipment and materials. The main objective is the analysis of the variables that influence the production of solids from the stillage, for use as organic corrosion inhibitors. The vinasse used in this work is obtained as a residual from the distillation process of alcohol from the molasses sugar cane rum factory Kingston, Jamaica. Experimental tests were conducted to obtain solid by the method of electrocoagulation. The analysis of the influence of the variables in the electrocoagulation process was developed by a 33 factorial design of experiments, considering variables such as current density, pH and residence time, obtaining the optimal combinations of these variables to higher solids in the response variables: the removal of color and total solids. The three variables were studied and their interactions influence on the total solids obtained in the electrocoagulation, reaching the highest values of solids to the highest values of time and current intensity and an intermediate pH value, the current intensity remains the most significant variable. For the removal of color current intensity was not statistically significant, and the most significant variable was the pH.