Stripping Bioethanol from Fermented Molasses in A Packed Tower

Abstract

<p>The high price of bioethanol is the barrier of its implementation as renewable energy sources. Therefore, efforts to reduce its price is an important factor to drive the implementation. Stripping is a way to separate bioethanol from the broth which will be cheaper than distillation process. This research was aimed to separate bioethanol from its fermented molasses. The effect of feed flow rate, air flow rate and feed temperature were investigated. A column with inside diameter of 0.1 m was used and packed with 0.02 x 0.016 m PVC rashig ring at 1 m of bed. The broth was fed from the top side and the air stripper was flown down from the bottom side. Six millimeters of the top product was collected at steady state condition for analysis of bioethanol concentration. The best experiment was the one which had feed flow rate 1,5 L/min and stripping air flow rate of 5,85 L/min. It resulted bioethanol content of 19.39% or equivalent to 38.5% stripped out of the broth.</p>