DEVELOPMENT OF AN ETHANOL PRODUCTION PROCESS WITH STILLAGE RECYCLING AT BENCH-SCALE.
Sustainable process-product development & green chemistry
Sustainable & Clean Technologies-II: Energy Production (T1-5P)
Keywords: stillage recycling, ethanol production, clean technology
The production of energy from biomass has been object of wide research in the last years, especially the production of fuel alcohol, in Colombia, has increased thanks to laws promulgated by the government; parallel to this the generation of residues increases also, in this case called stillage or vinasse, for a conventional process 13 to 15 liters are obtained of stillage by liter of ethanol, which for the quantity of ethanol projected, of 750 million liters/ year of alcohol, would be generated between 9750 and 11250 million liters of stillage/year, a so big quantity.
An ethanol production process with stillage recycling in bench-scale was developed in order to determine stillage percentage recirculation and the number of successive recycles that can be carried out, without detriment in the ethanol productivity achieved. With the best results obtained in bench-scale will be climbed to pilot plant-scale.
The inhibitors presents in the stillage, as acetic acid and solids, which increase by accumulation, with the continuous recycles, limit the recirculate percentage and the number of recycles that can be carried out, for this reason several alternatives were proposed and evaluated in order to remove them or diminish their harmful effect.
See the full pdf manuscript of the abstract.
Presented Monday 17, 13:30 to 15:00, in session Sustainable & Clean technologies - II: Energy Production (T1-5P).
