Production of ethanol as a renewable energy by extractive fermentation

One issue with batch fermentation is that product inhibition causes low yields and ethanol productivity. The objective of this study was to increase the yield and ethanol productivity via continuous fermentation in a packed bed bioreactor with both an integrated extraction process and recycling of the raffinate into the fermenter. Molasses was used as the feedstock, and the immobilized cells were supported by K{green}-carrageenan. This process used n-amyl alcohol, 1-octanol, and 1-dodecanol as solvents. The yield and ethanol productivity increased from 8.79% to 20.03% and 34.54 g/L·h to 118.16 g/L·h for experiments using n-amyl alcohol, 9.05% to 12.67% and 35.59 g/L·h to 74.71 g/L·h, for 1-dodecanol, 8.89% to 13.45% and 34.93 g/L·h to 84.62 g/L·h, for1-octanol by increasing recycle ratio from 0 to 0.5. Based on these results, n-amyl alcohol was the best solvent for the extractive fermentation process.