Modelling of Ethanol Fermentation Coupled with Product Recovery by Pervaporation

Bioethanol is the most important biofuel produced by fermentation of sugars from various biomass types. The main disadvantages associated to this process consist in the negative effect of high ethanol concentration on the cell growth and in the separation cost of ethanol-water system resulted in the fermentation process. Sugar fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast coupled with bioethanol recovery by pervaporation has been modeled and simulated in this paper. In order to avoid the clogging of pervaporation membrane, the yeast cells were previously retained into an ultrafiltration unit. Three operating modes were analyzed and compared, i.e., classical batch fermentation (BF), batch fermentation coupled with external ultrafiltration and pervaporation (BFPV), and fed batch fermentation coupled with external ultrafiltration and pervaporation (FBFPV). Surface areas of ultrafiltration and pervaporation units were selected as process control variables.