Abstract

AGUDELO ESCOBAR, LINA MARÍA; SALAZAR ALVAREZ, URIEL  and  PENUELA, MARIANA. CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF ETHANOL IN PACKED BED-BIOREACTORS WITH IMMOBILIZED YEAST CELLS ON LIGNOCELLULOSIC WASTE. Dyna rev.fac.nac.minas [online]. 2012, vol.79, n.174, pp.107-113. ISSN 0012-7353.

Continuous processes with immobilized cells are a good alternative for improving the efficiency and the performance of alcoholic fermentations. The potential use of raw materials obtained from agro-industrial waste as supports for cell immobilization was recently evaluated. In this work, we evaluated the continuous production of ethanol in packed-bed reactors with yeast cells immobilized on wood shaving, cane bagasse, corn leave, and corn cob lignocellulosic waste. We used glucose as a carbon source to establish the reference conditions and we made the fermentations with commercial sucrose. We also evaluated the glucose syrup obtained from cassava flour as alternative substrate. The experiments were performed on a laboratory level in column reactors of 250 mL. The cane bagasse was the material on which the highest amount of cells was immobilized. A value of 0.047 g Biomass/g Carrier (gX/gC) was obtained. For the fermentation performed with glucose, the productivity reached was 13.33 ± 1.5 g/L h. A similar value, 13.00 ± 0.02 g/L h was reached for the productivity of fermentation with sucrose. In the fermentations performed with glucose syrup, a higher amount of ethanol was obtained in the process that used corn cob as the carrier. 31.99 ± 1.93 g/L of ethanol was produced and the productivity of 10.66 ± 0.64 g/L h was reached. The results obtained have allowed us to establish the potential this lignocellulosic waste has as carriers for cell immobilization for the continuous production of ethanol, and the possibility of using glucose syrup as an alternative substrate.

Keywords : Biofuels; Ethanol; Continuous process; Yeast immobilization; Lignocellulosic waste; Alcoholic fermentation; Yeasts.

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