Continuous ethanol production in an ideal mixing reactor

In alcoholic fermentation process, yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) are added to the wort, converting the substrate into ethanol and carbon dioxide. At high levels, bacterial contamination causes several operational problems. In order, to reduce the contaminating microbial, the sugarcane industries advocate the use of antibiotics and concentrated sulfuric acid in the traditional treatments, increasing costs and generating waste chemicals. The use of the membrane process can increase productivity, operating times, product uniformity and ease of automation, and reduce labor costs and sanitization of the reactors, eliminating the use of anitbiotics / sulfuric acid, as well as allow the removal of the impurities that come with the raw material, thus allowing the necessary nutrients the yeasts are not removed. In this search, the continuous process was carried out, adjusting inflow and outflow of substrate / product in the reactor and the (membrane area exposure/fill reactor) ratio, favoring the withdrawal of ethanol produced, thus in the ideal mixing reactor. The SiO2 macroporous membranes were used to isolate microbiologically the reservoir and wine produced, allowing only the diffusion of substrate (sucrose) and final product (bioethanol). The characterization with refractometer, micro distiller, digital densimeter, optical microscope and gas chromatograph indicates promising results such level maintenance of substrate/product, reduction of secondary compounds, microbiological isolation of the must for fermentation, and fermentation yeasts to the must and wine, obtaining an alcoholic average content of 6,00%.