SIMULATION OF ETHANOL PRODUCTION

BY FERMENTATION OF MOLASSES

STUDENT: LUANN KARLOS ALVES DA SILVA

 1. Introduction material composition used for this simulation is
Ethanol fermentation, also called alcoholic shown in the Table 01.
fermentation, is a biological process which converts Table 01: Raw material composition
sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose into Component Fraction
cellular energy, producing ethanol and carbon Sucrose 50%
dioxide as a side-effect. Ethanol is mostly used as Water 20%
fuel and has become an alternative of renewable Others 30%
energy source these days. Simulation of this process 3.1.1 Fermentation
can be performed form which new ideas for The molasses needs to be diluted and heated
increasing production and minimizing cost can be before going to next step, which is fermentation.
achieved as computer based simulation has been very Dissolved sugar from ground up molasses is diluted
popular now-a-days for different chemical by mixing water with it. Yeast is added with this
engineering purposes. before feeding to fermenter. Glucose and fructose
This present work shows an ethanol production are obtained by hydrolysis of sucrose., then glucose
simulation performed by a software called ASPEN and fructose is converted into ethanol, glycerol and
plus v8, assuming and simplifying a couple of things. CO2.
3.1.2 Ethanol Distillation
2. Objective The liquid stream leaving the fermenter is a
Considering the importance of the present dilute ethanol solution which also contains some
process, work was undertaken to design and sucrose, glucose and fructose. This stream is sent to
simulate the ethanol production process using the concentration tower which is a stripping column.
ASPEN PLUS® software. The liquid stream from the bottom of this stillage
The objectives of the present project are column contains water with trace of sucrose, glucose
following: and fructose. The gaseous stream emerging from top
 To design a an ethanol production of the column contains ethanol and is sent to an heat
process from molasses and study the exchanger to purify the alcohol.
sensitivity analysis.
 To optimize the heat requirement of the 3.2 Description of the process
flowsheet by consequence install a low 3.2.1 - Pre-Fermentation
requirement of energy. Inlet: 200.000 tonnes of molasses/year. The
inlet temperature is 10 °C, and the pressure is 1 bar.
3. Methodology The devices have no pressure drop. The composition
ASPEN is a process simulation software package of the molasses was already showed in this work. The
widely used in industry today. Given a process design molasses should be diluted with water and the yeast
and an appropriate selection of thermodynamic concentration should be 9g/L right before the
models, ASPEN uses mathematical models to predict fermentation. Two mixers were added in this step of
the performance of the process. This information can the project, the first one is responsible for mixing the
then be used in an iterative fashion to optimize the stream of water and molasses. The second one is
design. This accurate modeling of thermodynamic responsible for mixing the outlet stream of the first
properties is particularly important in the separation mixer with the yeast.
of non-ideal mixtures, and ASPEN has a large data We control the water stream by a tool called
bases of regressed parameters. ASPEN can handle design specification, to get the right concentration of
very complex processes, including multiple-column yeast at the moment of the fermentation. We assume
separation systems, chemical reactors, distillation of a density of 1g/cm3 so we can convert the yeast
chemically reactive compounds, and even electrolyte concentration into %m/m. After that we need to
solutions like mineral acids and sodium hydroxide preheat to the temperature of the fermentation, which
solutions. is 32°C, then a heat exchanger was add and the outlet
stream of it follows to the fermentation.
3.2.2 - Fermentation
3.1 Description of the project The simulator does not have a fermenter, so we
The process consists of basically convert had to use a reactor followed by a separator.
molasses into ethanol. Molasses is a viscous by- In the reactor we set the reactions of the ethanol
product of the refining of sugarcane or sugar beets production, and their efficiency:
into sugar. Molasses varies by amount of sugar and The conversion of sucrose in the fermenter was
method of extraction, and age of plant. The raw defined in 100%. Glucose and Fructose is 90%
 converted into ethanol, 5% into Glycerol and 5% 4. Results and Discussions
remains unconverted.
Sucrose + H2O  Glucose + Fructose 4.1 - Mass Balance
Glucose  2 Ethanol + 2 CO2 4.1.1 - Pre-Fermentation
Glucose + 2 H2O  2 Glycerol + O2
Fructose  2 Ethanol + 2 CO2 Table 02: Mass balance of the pre-fermentation
Fructose + 2 H2O 2 Glycerol + O2 Stream Molasses Water Mix1 Yeast Mix2
The fermentation broth should contain 8% of
Component
ethanol at the end of fermentation, so we had to
Sucrose(kg/h) 11407,7 11407,7 11407,7
define another design specification in the simulation
to make sure of that controlling the water to get the Water (kg/h) 4563,09 50893 55456,1 55456,1
right concentration of ethanol at the end of the Other (kg/h) 6844,63 6844,63 6844,63
fermentation.
Yeast (kg/h) 672,023 672,023
In the separator, we define which components
we would like to remove. In this case, we removed Total (kg/h) 22815,4 50893 73708,4 672,023 74380,4
the CO2 and the O2. Actually, oxygen is not released
during the fermentation, but we modeled the
formation of glycerol with the above equation. This step of the simulation is just a simple
dilution. As we can see, the only component
changing is the water and that is because we need to
3.2.3 - Distillation set the yeast concentration to 9%, as requested
The outlet stream of the separator is a dilute initially. Is easy to see, that this request is
ethanol solution which also contains some sucrose, accomplished since the 672,023kg/h is about 9% of
glucose and fructose. The next step of the simulation the total mass flow.
is to preheat the broth to 80°C, then, this stream
goes to the stillage column. This block operates at 1 4.1.2 - Fermentation
bar, 20 trays and without condenser. The feed
arrives above the first tray, and the overhead product Table 03: Mass balance of fermentation
Stream Before After GASES BROTH
is withdrawn in vapor phase. This distillation should Fermentation Fermantation (out)
have an ethanol mass recovery of 98%. Component
To get this exact mass recovery we had to set the Sucrose(kg/h) 11407,7 0
right power on the stillage column. For that, we
Water (kg/h) 55456,1 54843,66 54843,66
should operate the sensitivity tool. Using this tool, we
are able to find out the exact power to gain this 98% Other (kg/h) 6844,63 6844,62 6844,62
of ethanol, that is, 98% of the ethanol amount fed Ethanol 5527,17 5527,17
into the column will be recovered in the overhead (kg/h)
product stream. CO2 (kg/h) 5280,11 5280,11
The top outlet stream is an ethanol solution that Yeast (kg/h) 672,02 672,02 672,02
should be condensed soon after, on in an external Glucose 570,38 570,38
heat exchanger. The simulation is done when the (kg/h)
vapor phases becomes 0%. Fructose 570,38 570,38
(kg/h)
Glycerol 61,38 61,38
3.2.4 - Utilities (kg/h)
Cooling water (at fermentation and heat exchangers): O2 (kg/h) 10,66 10,66
inlet temperature: 10°C, outlet temp.: 20°C
Steam (at heat exchangers and reboilers): 8 bar
saturated steam, which will condense entirely, that is Total (kg/h) 74380,4 74380,4 5290.78 690989,6
the outlet conditions are 8 bar and boiling point.
The specification here was that fermentation
broth should contain 8% of ethanol at the end of
3.2.5 - Heat integration fermentation. Is easy to see that the design
We use the heat of condensation of the overhead specification was successful, since the 5527,17kg/h is
product to preheat the broth prior to distillation. approximately 8% of the total mass flow in the AF
stream.
 4.1.3 - Distillation Table 05: Heating and cooling requirements of the
simulation with heat integration
Table 04: Mass balance of the distillation Block Heater Reactor Separ H2 Stilla H3 H4
Stream HOT OVERHEAD DEST 1 (H1) ator ge
BROTH Parameter Colu
Component mn
Sucrose(kg/h)
Water (kg/h) 54843,66 4937,048 49906,61 Inlet 10 32 32 32 80 91 82
Other (kg/h) 6844,62 1,5821E-14 6844,62 Temperature
(°C)
Ethanol (kg/h) 5527,17 5421,704 105,4709 Outlet 32 32 32 80 91 82 57
CO2 (kg/h) Temperature
(°C)
Yeast (kg/h) 672,02 1,5534E-15 672,02
Glucose (kg/h) 570,38 1,3184E-15 570,38 Q (kW) 1424 -3366 -64 3338 5837 -3338 -1424
Fructose 570,38 1,3184E-15 570,38
(kg/h)
Glycerol 61,38 0,000432271 61,38
(kg/h) 4.2.2 - Without heat integration
O2 (kg/h) If we decide not to do the heat integration, it
would be necessary a final heater with a duty of -
Total (kg/h) 690989,6 10358,8 58730,89 4511kW, in other words, a cooler.

As we know, distillation is a widely used method Table 06: Heating and cooling requirements of the
for separating mixtures based on differences in the simulation with heat integration
Block H1 Reactor Separator H2 Stillag H3
conditions required to change the phase of e
components of the mixture. To separate a mixture of Parameter Colum
liquids, the liquid can be heated to force components, n
which have different boiling points, into the gas
phase. In this case, we want to separate the ethanol Inlet 10 32 32 32 80 91
from the original mixture. The mass recovery Temperature
required was 98%, which is clear to see that the (°C)
simulation has done it properly. Outlet 32 32 32 80 91 81
Temperature
The components in red on the overhead stream (°C)
must be dismissed, since there is no possibility of Q (kW) 1424 -3366 -64 3338 5837 -4511
thoses components be present at the top of the stillage
collum.
Thefore, we can see in all the steps of simulation
the affirmation of the law of conservation of mass, 5. Conclusion
since the mass flow remains constant, save when
there is a outlet stream. Simulation analysis has become very useful tool
nowadays to test a process to verify its feasibility at
different operating parameters. This particular
4.2 - Heating and cooling requirements process of fermentation of molasses into ethanol is
4.2.1 - With heat integration one of the earliest biotechnologies employed by
We use the heat integration to minimize energy humanity. In this present study, fermentation process
consumption. development to produce ethanol is the main aim, and
In this simulation we used the overhead stream the job is done good thanks to some considerations.
heat to preheat the broth to distillation, and also the
preheat of the fermentation.
The simulation shows that is possible to obtain the
ethanol with the required specifications without any
extra duty by the heat exchanger. In other words,
after the first distillation, is possible to use the
overhead stream heat to warm the cold streams up.