Monday, May 5, 2008
9-32

Modeling and Optimization of an Extractive Fermentation Plant for Ethanol Production.

Rafael Ramos de Andrade1, Elmer Ccopa Rivera1, Rubens Maciel Filho2, Daniel Ibraim Pires Atala3, Francisco Maugeri1, and Aline Carvalho da Costa1. (1) Department of Chemical Processes, School of Chemical Engineering, State University of Campinas, Albert Einstein Avenue, 500, Campinas, 13081970, Brazil, (2) Department of Chemical Process – School of Chemical Engineering, State University of Campinas, Cidade Universitária, P.O. Box 6066, Campinas, Brazil, (3) Department of Food Engineering, School of Food Engineering, Monteiro Lobato Street, 80, Campinas, 13081970, Brazil

The extractive fermentation process is interesting for industrial sector due to its high capacity of enhancing the productivity in fermentative plants. The process is formed by a stirred bioreactor linked to a hollow-fiber membrane and a flash vessel under vacuum (for ethanol removal). The potentiality of this process is related to the high concentration of S. cerevisiae in the system, which contributes to an increment in the kinetic rate of product formation and lower ethanol inhibition on the yeasts, resulting in a better performance comparing to common processes. The non-necessity of heat exchangers for fermentor cooling and less vinasse formation must be emphasized as advantages. For this process, the kinetic modeling of was performed considering the temperature effect, ethanol, substrate and biomass inhibition on the cell growth and an intrinsic model was applied. The flash modeling was done by NRTL model, taking into consideration a mixture of molasses, ethanol, water and other products inherited from fermentation. The membrane model is based on the membrane resistance which includes fouling, cake formation, polarization and several phenomena. The optimization of all units was done through Response Surface using the Statistic Software. Specifically, for flash vessel, the influence of temperature, pressure and mass flow were evaluated on the separation performance; and for the membrane system, the velocity of the flow on the permeate flux. Thus, this work provided a better understanding of the process behavior as well the determination of optimal conditions, taking into consideration the productivity.

See more of Poster Session Two
See more of General Submissions

See more of The 30th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals (May 4 -- 7, 2008)