Ethanol Production from Different Intermediates of Sugar Beet Processing
Mladen Pavlečić, Ivna Vrana, Kristijan Vibovec, Mirela Ivančić Šantek, Predrag Horvat and Božidar Šantek*
Department of Biochemical Engineering, Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Pierottijeva 6/IV, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Article history:
Received March 11, 2010
Accepted May 26, 2010
Key words:
ethanol, fermentation, raw sugar beet juice, raw sugar beet cossettes, stirred tank bioreactor, horizontal rotating tubular reactor (HRTB)
Summary:
In this investigation, the production of ethanol from the raw sugar beet juice and raw sugar beet cossettes has been studied. For ethanol production from the raw sugar beet juice, batch and fed-batch cultivation techniques in the stirred tank bioreactor were used, while batch ethanol production from the raw sugar beet cossettes was carried out in horizontal rotating tubular bioreactor (HRTB). In both cases, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as a production microorganism. During batch ethanol production from the raw sugar beet juice, ethanol yield was 59.89 g/L and production efficiency 78.8 %, and in fed-batch process the yield was 92.78 g/L and efficiency 93.4 %. At the same time, ethanol production in HRTB from the raw sugar beet cossettes with inoculum of 16.7 % V/m (raw sugar beet cossettes) resulted in the highest ethanol yield of 54.53 g/L and production efficiency of 79.5 %. The obtained results clearly show that both intermediates of sugar beet processing can be successfully used for ethanol production.
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