Evaluation of heat transfer in alcoholic fermentation

The understanding of energy flows in ethanol fermentation is essential for process design. In the present study, modelling and experimental validation of heat generation and transfer in conventional alcoholic fermentation were carried out. Experiments were conducted in a bioreactor with a 10 L working volume and temperature of 34 °C. From the energy balance, the rate of heat generation by cell growth (QG) was obtained in ethanol fermentation and the thermal yield of biomass (YH) was equivalent to 0,102 gX.kJ-1.