Modeling and Characteristics of Ethanol Fermentation Process Combined with Pervaporation

투과증발과 결합된 에탄올 발효 공정의 모델링 및 특성

Pervaporation which is capable of removing ethanol selectively was adopted to reduce the ethanol inhibition and in situ recovery of ethanol in ethanol fermentation, The composite membrane made of silicone and polysulfone was used to separate the ethanol selectively. The ethanol selectivity of the membrane was about 4 and the total flux was 300 g/m2 h at 301:: and 10 mmHg for 25 g/l of feed concentration. Saccharomyces cerevisiae entrapped within Ca-alginate gels was employed for ethanol fermentations in a fluidized-bed bioreactor. The pervaporation membrane unit and fluidized-bed bioreactor were combined into one system. The proposed model equations for the combined system showed good accordances with the experimental results. It was found from the simulation results that the ethanol concentration in the broth for the combined system was lower than that for the continuous fermentation system without a membrane unit. Ethanol productivity can be thus increased by employing the combined system.

에탄올발효에서 에탄올은 세포의 성장 및 에탄올생합성에 저해작용을 하는 것으로 알려져 있다. 이러한 저해작용을 감소시켜주기 위하여 에탄올을 선택적으로 분리하는 투과증발법을 이용하였다. 실리콘폴리슬폰 복합막을 제조하여 사용하였는데, 이 막은 유입액의 에탄올 농도가 25g/l, 온도가 30'C, 막하부의 압력이 10mmHg일 때 에탄올의 선택도가 약 4 이었으며, 총 투과유속은 300g/m2h이었다. 에탄올 발효는 Saccharomyces cerevisiae를 Ca-alginate에 고정화시켜 유동층 생물반응기에 접종하여 수행하였고, 이 반응기를 투과증발장치와 연결한 혼합공정을 구성하였는데, 혼합공정의 경우 발효배지의 에탄올농도는 막을 연결하지 않았을 때보다 감소하여 저해작용을 감소시키고 생산성을 향상시켰다.