Fermentation of sugar for production of ethanol was carried out using Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells immobilized in calcium alginate films. Thin films of calcium alginate casted on a microchannel surface were used instead of the typical spherical bead configuration. Yeast immobilized on alginate films produced a higher ethanol yield than free yeast cells under the same fermentation conditions. Also, a silicalite-1/poly dimethyl siloxane composite pervaporation membrane was synthesized for ethanol separation, and characterized with flux and separation factor. The composite membrane synthesized with a 3-1 ratio of silicalite-1 to poly dimethyl siloxane showed promising results, with a flux of 140.6g/m2h±19.3 and a separation factor of 37.52±3.55. Thus, the performance of both the alginate film with immobilized cells and the customized hybrid membrane suggests they could have an interesting potential application in an integrated reaction-separation device for the production and purification of bioethanol.
Keywords: Bioethanol production; Calcium alginate films; Immobilized yeast; Pervaporation; Silicalite-1 poly dimethyl siloxane membrane.
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