Comparing a Dynamic Fed-Batch and a Continuous Steady-State Simulation of Ethanol Fermentation in a Distillery to a Stoichiometric Conversion Simulation

Abstract

An autonomous sugarcane bioethanol plant was simulated in EMSO software, an equation oriented process simulator. Three types of fermentation units were simulated: a six parallel fed-batch reactor system, a set of four CSTR in steady state and one consisting of a single stoichiometric reactor. Stoichiometric models are less accurate than kinetic-based fermentation models used for fed-batch and continuous fermenter simulations, since they do not account for inhibition effects and depend on a known conversion rate of reactant to be specified instead. On the other hand, stoichiometric models are faster and simpler to converge. In this study it was found that the conversion rates of sugar for the fermentation systems analyzedwere predictable from information on the composition of the juice stream. Those rates were used in the stoichiometric model, which accurately reproduced the results from both the fed-batch and the continuous fermenter system.

Keywords:
Bioethanol; Fed-batch fermentation; Continuous fermentation; Stoichiometric fermentation; Simulation