Vacuum stripping of ethanol during high solids fermentation of corn

Appl Biochem Biotechnol. 2014 May;173(2):486-500. doi: 10.1007/s12010-014-0855-9.

Abstract

In corn-ethanol industry, yeast stress inducing glucose concentrations produced during liquefaction and subsequent high ethanol concentrations produced during fermentation restrict slurry solids to 32 % w/w. These limits were circumvented by combining two novel technologies: (1) granular starch hydrolyzing enzyme (GSHE) to break down starch simultaneously with fermentation and (2) vacuum stripping to remove ethanol. A vacuum stripping system was constructed and applied to fermentations at 30, 40, and 45 % solids. As solids increased from 30 to 40 %, ethanol yield decreased from 0.35 to 0.29 L/kg. Ethanol yield from 45 % solids was only 0.18 L/kg. An improvement was conducted by increasing enzyme dose from 0.25 to 0.75 g/g corn and reducing yeast inoculum by half. After improvement, ethanol yield from 40 % solids vacuum treatment increased to 0.36 L/kg, comparable to ethanol yield from 30 % solids (control).

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Acetic Acid / metabolism
  • Biotechnology / methods*
  • Ethanol / metabolism*
  • Fermentation*
  • Glucose / metabolism
  • Lactic Acid / metabolism
  • Microbial Viability
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / metabolism
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / physiology
  • Vacuum*
  • Zea mays / metabolism*

Substances

  • Lactic Acid
  • Ethanol
  • Glucose
  • Acetic Acid