Fig. 1From: Novel distillation process for effective and stable separation of high-concentration acetone–butanol–ethanol mixture from fermentation–pervaporation integration processDifferences between the conventional distillation series and the novel distillation series. In the conventional distillation series, the energy requirement of the ethanol column was high. There was a trace of ethanol contained in the bottom stream of ethanol column, which would further accumulate in the distillates of water and butanol columns. The process is poor in controllability in long-term operation. The novel effective and stable distillation series only changed the streams of the water and butanol columns’ distillates. The reflux ratio of the ethanol column decreased and no ethanol accumulated in the water and butanol columnsBack to article page