Textile bioreactor a possible solution to reducing ethanol fermentation cost

4^th International Conference on Bioprocess and Bio Therapeutics

October 20-21, 2016 Houston, USA

Osagie A Osadolor, Patrik R Lennartsson and Mohammad J Taherzadeh

University of Boras, Sweden

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Bioproces Biotechniq

Abstract :

There is growing concern on bioethanol application as a transportation fuel because of the current low price of crude oil. To reduce the ethanol fermentation cost, how ethanol bioreactors can be designed to offer process flexibility, reduced investment cost, optimal productivity and more than 1 h-1 dilution rates without washout was investigated. A bioreactor made with textile as its backbone material of construction was designed to anaerobically utilize flocculating yeast for ethanol production without using mixing devices like aerators, spargers and stirrers. A mixing system was developed that used the flocculating yeast in the form of a fluidized bed in the bioreactor, and the conditions needed to maintain the fluidized bed in the bioreactor were determined. Recirculation flow rate and utilization of the mixing system were used as process variables for fermentation experiments. It was found that it is possible to use the fluidized mixing system in the bioreactor at dilution rate of 1.2 h-1 without washout. Mass transfer limitations associated with mixing when using flocculating yeast was resolved even at low recirculation mixing rate of 0.0016 VVM. Specific ethanol productivity of 0.29�±0.01 g-ethanol/g-biomass/h with complete sucrose consumption was attained. Using the bioreactor with flocculating yeast can reduce the fermentation investment cost of a 100,000 m3/y ethanol plant by 37%.

Biography :

Osagie A Osadolor has been a PhD student at University of Boras, Sweden since 2014. His PhD thesis is on “Textile Bioreactor Development for Ethanol and Biogas Production”. Prior to this, he worked as a Management Trainee at Honeywell Groups, Nigeria and as a Graduate Assistant at University of Benin, Nigeria. He has a Master’s degree (MEng with distinction) and a Bachelor’s degree (BEng with first class honors) in Chemical Engineering from University of Benin, Nigeria. He has published 2 papers in reputable journals.

Email: alex.osagie@hb.se