i am trying to separate ethanol from water. Actually the amount of ethanol is very less.And the ethanol is derived from fermentation broth. Should i prefer to use n-Butanol and mix it with the fermented sample for injection in the G.C
Cf.: D.M.T. Newsham, N. Vahdat, "Part I: Experimental results for the systems methanol-water-n-butanol, ethanol-water-n-butanol and n-propanol-water-n-butanol", Chem. Eng. J., 13, 1977, 27-31.
Elsewhere at this forum I have suggested 4-decanol for liquid-liquid extraction of ethanol from its dilute aqueous solutions: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_can_ethanol_very_small_concentration_be_separated_from_water
The best approved technique is the azeotropic distillation. For low ethanol content, the steam distillation is performed with careful control of the reflux ratio to end up with gradual increase of ethanol content on the expense of water. However at a ration of 95.5% ethanol with 4.5% water is a stable (azeotrope) mixture that can not be further concentrated. At such a ratio the removal of such low water content Benzene, C6H6, is mixed at certain percentage with the azeotropic (EtOh+H2O) and distillation is performed. A new azeotrope is formed between the whole water content and some ethanol which can be separated by distillation. Much literature is available on the design and engineering of the process...