Fermenter Design for (Batch and Continuous Operation) Production of Ethanol from Corn

Abstract

The liquid portion of the slurry has 8-12% ethanol by weight. The whole process requires 48-72 hours. The batch fermentation systems can be used and out of is more popular. For continuous operation we need 4 numbers of fermenter according to the fermentation time.The Batch and Continuous fermentation systems can be used and out of both batch process is more popular. By using material balance, we get the volume of fermenter for 1 KL ethanol production. With help of volume and design equations we can calculate Length, Height, Thickness, I.D., O.D., Weight of Vessel, Head thickness & cost of Fermenter. The sizes of bioreactor vary from microbial cell to shake flask (100-1000 ml) to laboratory scale vessel (1 – 50 L) to pilot level (0.3 – 10 m³) to industrial scale (2 -500 m³) for large volume industrial applications. Lab scale fermenter are typically constructed with the glass and the pilot scale and the industrial scale vessel are normally fabricated with stainless steel.1000 ml of 0.1M sodium acetate buffer solution poured into 1000 ml (Erlenmeyer) conical flask, 20 g of Aspergillums Niger (crude enzyme), 5 g of brewer’s yeast, 20 g of treated corn added and 1 g of MgSO4, 2 g of (NH₄) H2PO4 added as nutrient. The flask corked properly, sealed with aluminium foil paper and incubated at 30 ^OC for 48-72 hrs. in an incubator. We can increase the fermentation time 4-6 days for analysis of yield of ethanol from biomass. As per literature study optimum time of fermentation is 48-72 hrs. i. e. 2-3 days. As per analysis 1000 ml (1 L) of ferment yield of 98.7 ml of ethanol. That shows the 9.87 % of yield of ethanol from corn with substrate concentration 140-160 gm/L. With help of yield we design fermenter (Reaction Vessel) for both continuous and batch operation. With help of design book and design equation we calculating the L, Di, t, h and Do of fermenter.