Abstract
This work presents the simulation in Aspen Plusr of a process to obtain arabinoxylans (AX) from Brewer’s Spent Grain (BSG), which is the major byproduct of the brewing industry. The process is divided into two stages: alkaline pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. These stages cover the extraction of proteins and AX from BSG using an alkaline pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of the AX separated from the liquid stream to obtain xylose, i.e. the substrate required for the fermentation to xylitol. Simulation results show that xylose obtained corresponds to 8,5% of the dry weight of the raw material, obtaining a yield of 58%. Several streams of byproducts were obtained, such as proteins, polypeptides, amino acids, phenolic compounds and lignocellulosic residues that can be valorized in other processes. Simulation was performed in the context of a biorefinery in Colombia.
Highlights
Global economy is based mainly on products derived from fossil resources
Considering sustainability principles and objectives formulated by United Nations (UN), several countries have promulgated policies to reduce the negative effects of greenhouse gases emissions on global warming, simultaneously helping to mitigate the economic instability due to the volatility of crude oil price
In addition to the stream containing xylose and arabinose in the feedstock fermentation section, three byproducts are generated: the solid residue rich in cellulose, the protein extracted from Brewer’s Spent Grain (BSG) and the liquid rich in phenolic compounds, such as pcoumaric and ferulic acids
Summary
Global economy is based mainly on products derived from fossil resources. Most of the basic and intermediate chemical products are produced using crude oil and natural gas as feedstock. The main challenge of biorefineries is to find the biomass with the composition and characteristics required by its products and processes This fact has led the bio-based chemical industry to seek allies in other manufacture sectors and find organic byproducts that can be used as raw material. Several studies have been published about the feasibility of biorefineries based on different processes for the production of xylitol from BSG as main raw material. This process pretreatment had as main objective the conditioning of raw material for the fermentation process, xylose production, which is the main substrate for fermentation and production of xylitol. Three production capacities were selected regarding breweries located in Colombia:
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