PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION OF ETHANOL USING STABLE YEAST CRYSTALS IN MODIFIED CONVENTIONAL BATCH REACTOR

摘要

Ethanol demand is ever increasing mainly because of its utilization as organic solvent and as starting compound for production of many organic solvents. In addition, it can replace the natural petroleum sources as energy fuels. Conventional method of ethanol production is performed mainly by batch fermentation, which requires addition of fresh yeast for every batch as seed culture and needs maintenance of yeast cultures, thus the process is costly and requires special expertise in microbiology. In this context, the recently developed yeast crystals solve some of the above-mentioned problems. However, the developed biocatalytic crystals upon fermentation tend to float on the surface of the fermentation broth during fermentation and thereby increase the fermentation time and reduce the rate of alcohol fermentation. The novelty lying in the present invention is use of modified conventional batch reactor for fermentation with activated yeast crystals reduces the fermentation time drastically and enhances the rate of ethanol production.