Abstract
Despite the advantages of continuous fermentation whereby ethanol is selectively removed from the fermenting broth to reduce the end-product inhibition, this process can concentrate minor secondary products to the point where they become toxic to the yeast. This study aims to develop a new mathematical model do describe the inhibitory effect of byproducts on alcoholic fermentation including glycerol, lactic acid, acetic acid, and succinic acid, which were reported as major byproducts during batch alcoholic fermentation. The accumulation of these byproducts during the different stages of batch fermentation has been quantified. The yields of total byproducts, glycerol, acetic acid, and succinic acid per gram of glucose were 0.0442, 0.023, 0.0155, and 0.0054, respectively. It was found that the concentration of these byproducts linearly increases with the increase in glucose concentration in the range of 25–250 g/L. The results have also showed that byproduct concentration has a significant inhibitory effect on specific growth coefficient (μ) whereas no effect was observed on the half-velocity constant (Ks). A new mathematical model of alcoholic fermentation was developed considering the byproduct inhibitory effect, which showed a good performance and more accuracy compared to the classical Monod model.
Highlights
Increasing concern about energy security and environmental issues such as emission of greenhouse gases has raised interest in the development of renewable bioenergy as an alternative energy to fossil-based fuel.[1−3] There are two main industrial sectors in biofuel production, namely, bioethanol and biodiesel
Samples were taken within a predetermined time to measure the concentration of glucose, ethanol, and different byproduct concentrations including glycerol, acetic acid, succinic acid, and lactic acid
The results showed the absence of lactic acid in all tested samples, which support the concept that lactic acid is a byproduct of abnormal alcoholic fermentation and may be considered an indicator of bacterial contamination in the broth.[30−33] Glycerol was the major byproduct, which represented more than 50% of the total mass of byproducts in all samples
Summary
Increasing concern about energy security and environmental issues such as emission of greenhouse gases has raised interest in the development of renewable bioenergy as an alternative energy to fossil-based fuel.[1−3] There are two main industrial sectors in biofuel production, namely, bioethanol and biodiesel. The batch fermentation process can be unaffordable in the downstream ethanol recovery process, since if the product titer is low (
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