Modeling of Production and Quality of Bioethanol Obtained from Sugarcane Fermentation Using Direct Dissolved Sugars Measurements

Borja Velazquez-Marti, Sergio Pérez-Pacheco, Juan Gaibor-Chávez and Paola Wilcaso
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Borja Velazquez-Marti: Departamento de Ingeniería Rural y Agroalimentaria, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, Valencia 46022, Spain
Sergio Pérez-Pacheco: Centro de Estudios de Biomasa, Departamento de Investigación, Universidad Estatal de Bolívar, Av. Ernesto Che Guevara, Sector Alpachaca, Guaranda 092, Ecuador
Juan Gaibor-Chávez: Centro de Estudios de Biomasa, Departamento de Investigación, Universidad Estatal de Bolívar, Av. Ernesto Che Guevara, Sector Alpachaca, Guaranda 092, Ecuador
Paola Wilcaso: Centro de Estudios de Biomasa, Departamento de Investigación, Universidad Estatal de Bolívar, Av. Ernesto Che Guevara, Sector Alpachaca, Guaranda 092, Ecuador

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-10

Abstract: Bioethanol production from sugarcane represents an opportunity for urban-agricultural development in small communities of Ecuador. Despite the fact that the industry for bioethanol production from sugarcane in Brazil is fully developed, it is still considered expensive as a small rural business. In order to be able to reduce the costs of monitoring the production process, and avoid the application of expensive sensors, the aim of this research was modeling the kinetics of production of bioethanol based on direct measurements of Brix grades, instead of the concentration of alcohol, during the process of cane juice bio-fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae . This avoids the application of expensive sensors that increase the investment costs. Fermentation experiments with three concentrations of yeast and two temperatures were carried out in a laboratory reactor. In each case Brix grades, amount of ethanol and alcoholic degree were measured. A mathematical model to predict the quality and production of bioethanol was developed from Brix grade measurements, obtaining an adjusted coefficient of determination of 0.97. The model was validated in a pilot plant.

Keywords: biofuel; bioenergy; kinetics model; developing sectors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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