Steady-State Simulation of the Strip-Flash Ethanol Fermentation Process

Abstract

The conventional ethanol fermentaion is a typical inhibitory process, leading to low productivity and yield. A new ethanol fermentation process coupled with gas stripping and vacuum flash, named as strip-flash fermentation, is proposed. The process is provided with the advantages of both stripping fermentation and flash fermentation, and improves the ethanol productivity by increasing the in-situ ethanol removal. And a model of flash-strip fermentation process was established. The theoretically analyses indicate that increasing gas flux and liquid phase recycling ratio can help to enhance productivity and yield of strip-flash fermentation process, and comparison to striping fermentation or flash fermentation, flash-strip fermentation has shown a better productivity. The results has also shown the possibilities of further application and optimization of this process.