Journal of Engineering and Technology ISSN: 2180-3811 Vol. 9 No. 2 July – December 2018 MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF ETHANOL DEHYDRATION FROM AZEOTROPIC CONCENTRATION USING PRESSURE SWING ADSORPTION (PSA) PROCESS E. T. Evwierhoma 1* , A. Jaiyeola 1 , A. B. Ehinmowo 1 and P. I. Babalola 1 1 Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Lagos, Lagos-Nigeria ABSTRACT The demand for pure ethanol has become paramount for its various applications in biofuels and preparation of industrial chemicals, food and pharmaceutical products. Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) has proven to be an effective process and a more economical method for separating the azeotropic concentration of ethanol-water (95% ethanol, 5% water) than distillation. The modeling of PSA of ethanol-water azeotropic concentration on zeolite 3A was done. The unsteady state mass balance equation for the water molecule in the packed bed was done as well. The sets of Partial Differential Equations obtained from the model equations were solved with the Crank Nicholson finite difference method using MATLAB software. The simulated data was observed to be considerably in agreement with the experimental data. The data obtained for dimensionless bed length z = 0.1 explains better the experimental result with Least Sum of Square Residuals (LSSR) of 0.06588. Breakthrough time of 600 seconds was obtained from simulated data while that of experimental was 680 seconds. The purity of 99.2705% v/v anhydrous ethanol was obtained. KEYWORDS: Biofuel, anhydrous ethanol, adsorption, breakthrough time 1.0 INTRODUCTION Ethanol, over the years has been an important feedstock in the chemical industry for the preparation and synthesis of other important chemicals due to its high miscibility with water and other chemicals. Its use as a fuel and gasoline additive has increased its demand. With this rise in demand also arose the need for the need to obtain its anhydrous form which requires the removal of water from its azeotropic concentration. Ethanol boils at 78.4 o C, water boils at 100 o C. Ethanol forms a constant-boiling mixture, or azeotrope, with water that contains 95% ethanol and 5% water and that boils at * Corresponding author: eevwierhoma@unilag.edu.ng