Separation and Semi-Empiric Modeling of Ethanol-Water Solutions by Pervaporation Using PDMS Membrane.

High energy demand, competitive fuel prices and the need for environmentally friendly processes have led to the constant development of the alcohol industry. Pervaporation is seen as a separation process, with low energy consumption, which has a high potential for application in the fermentation and dehydration of ethanol. This work presents the experimental ethanol recovery by pervaporation and the semi-empirical model of partial fluxes.

L-lactic acid production by Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 10863.

Lactic acid has been shown to have the most promising application in biomaterials as poly(lactic acid). L. rhamnosus ATCC 10863 that produces L-lactic acid was used to perform the fermentation and molasses was used as substrate.

Use of experimental design to investigate biodiesel production by multiple-stage Ultra-Shear reactor.

This work presents biodiesel production from soybean oil and bioethanol by multiple-stage Ultra-Shear reactor (USR). The experiments were carried out in the following conditions: reaction time from 6 to 12 min; catalyst concentration from 0.5% to 1.

Biodiesel production from integration between reaction and separation system: reactive distillation process.

Biodiesel is a clean burning fuel derived from a renewable feedstock such as vegetable oil or animal fat. It is biodegradable, non-inflammable, non-toxic, and produces lesser carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and unburned hydrocarbons than petroleum-based fuel. The purpose of the present work is to present an efficient process using reactive distillation columns applied to biodiesel production.

Production of lactic acid from sucrose: strain selection, fermentation, and kinetic modeling.

Lactic acid is an important product arising from the anaerobic fermentation of sugars. It is used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, chemical, and food industries as well as for biodegradable polymer and green solvent production. In this work, several bacterial strains were isolated from industrial ethanol fermentation, and the most efficient strain for lactic acid production was selected.

Monoglyceride and diglyceride production through lipase-catalyzed glycerolysis and molecular distillation.

Distilled glycerides are obtained through distillation of the system mono-diglycerides which is produced from the esterification reaction between a triglyceride with glycerol. In this work, monoglycerides (MG) and diglycerides (DG) are produced through lipase-catalyzed glycerolysis of soybean oil using Candida antarctica B in a solvent-free system. To separate the products of the reaction in order to obtain essentially MG and an oil of DG, it is necessary to use a suitable process in order to preserve the stability of the components and to keep the products free of inappropriate solvents.

Dynamics and control strategies for a butanol fermentation process.

In this work, mathematical modeling was employed to assess the dynamic behavior of the flash fermentation process for the production of butanol. This process consists of three interconnected units as follows: fermentor, cell retention system (tangential microfiltration), and vacuum flash vessel (responsible for the continuous recovery of butanol from the broth). Based on the study of the dynamics of the process, suitable feedback control strategies [single input/single output (SISO) and multiple input/multiple output (MIMO)] were elaborated to deal with disturbances related to the process.

Optimization strategies based on sequential quadratic programming applied for a fermentation process for butanol production.

In this work, the mathematical optimization of a continuous flash fermentation process for the production of biobutanol was studied. The process consists of three interconnected units, as follows: fermentor, cell-retention system (tangential microfiltration), and vacuum flash vessel (responsible for the continuous recovery of butanol from the broth). The objective of the optimization was to maximize butanol productivity for a desired substrate conversion.

Natural compounds obtained through centrifugal molecular distillation.

Soybean oil deodorized distillate (SODD) is a byproduct from refining edible soybean oil; however, the deodorization process removes unsaponifiable materials, such as sterols and tocopherols. Tocopherols are highly added value materials. Molecular distillation has large potential to be used in order to concentrate tocopherols, because it uses very low levels of temperatures because of the high vacuum and short operating time for separation and, also, it does not use solvents.

Optimization of distilled monoglycerides production.

Monoglycerides (MG) are emulsifiers widely used in food and pharmaceutical industries. Current industrial processes for MG production consist of the interesterification of triglycerides with glycerol (GL), in the presence of inorganic catalysts at high temperatures (>200 degrees C). This reaction is known as glycerolysis and produces a mixture of approx 50% of MG.

Optimization of tocopherol concentration process from soybean oil deodorized distillate using response surface methodology.

Soybean oil deodorized distillate is a product derived from the refining process and it is rich in high value-added products. The recovery of these unsaponifiable fractions is of great commercial interest, because of the fact that in many cases, the "valuable products" have vitamin activities such as tocopherols (vitamin E), as well as anticarcinogenic properties such as sterols. Molecular distillation has large potential to be used in order to concentrate tocopherols, as it uses very low temperatures owing to the high vacuum and short operating time for separation, and also, it does not use solvents.

Monoglycerides and diglycerides synthesis in a solvent-free system by lipase-catalyzed glycerolysis.

Five lipases were screened (Thermomyces lanuginosus free and immobilized forms, Candida antarctica B, Candida rugosa, Aspergillus niger, and Rhizomucor miehei) to study their ability to produce monoglycerides (MG) and diglycerides (DG) through enzymatic glycerolysis of soybean oil. Lipase from C. antarctica was further studied to verify the enzyme load (wt% of oil mass), the molar ratio glycerol/oil, and the water content (wt% of glycerol) on the glycerolysis reaction.

Kinetic modeling and parameter estimation in a tower bioreactor for bioethanol production.

In this work, a systematic method to support the building of bioprocess models through the use of different optimization techniques is presented. The method was applied to a tower bioreactor for bioethanol production with immobilized cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Specifically, a step-by-step procedure to the estimation problem is proposed.

Bioethanol production optimization: a thermodynamic analysis.

In this work, the phase equilibrium of binary mixtures for bioethanol production by continuous extractive process was studied. The process is composed of four interlinked units: fermentor, centrifuge, cell treatment unit, and flash vessel (ethanol-congener separation unit). A proposal for modeling the vapor-liquid equilibrium in binary mixtures found in the flash vessel has been considered.

Molecular distillation: a powerful technology for obtaining tocopherols from soya sludge.

Molecular distillation was studied for the separation of tocopherols from soya sludge, both experimentally and by simulation, under different operating conditions, with good agreement. Evaporator temperatures varied from 100 degrees C to 160 degrees C and feed flow rates ranged from 0.1 to 0.

Simulation and optimization of a supercritical extraction process for recovering provitamin A.

In this work, a simulation procedure of a supercritical extraction process was developed through the use of the commercial simulator HYSYS (Hyprotech Ltd.), adapting the existing units to the operating conditions typical of the supercritical extraction process. The objective is to recover provitamin A (beta-carotene) from palm oil (esterified) using carbon dioxide/ethanol as the supercritical mixed solvent.

Ethyl alcohol production optimization by coupling genetic algorithm and multilayer perceptron neural network.

In this present article, genetic algorithms and multilayer perceptron neural network (MLPNN) have been integrated in order to reduce the complexity of an optimization problem. A data-driven identification method based on MLPNN and optimal design of experiments is described in detail. The nonlinear model of an extractive ethanol process, represented by a MLPNN, is optimized using real-coded and binary-coded genetic algorithms to determine the optimal operational conditions.

Natural compounds obtained through centrifugal molecular distillation.

Soybean oil deodorized distillate (SODD) is a byproduct from refining edible soybean oil; however, the deodorization process removes unsaponifiable materials, such as sterols and tocopherols. Tocopherols are highly added value materials. Molecular distillation has large potential to be used in order to concentrate tocopherols, because it uses very low levels of temperatures because of the high vacuum and short operating time for separation and, also, it does not use solvents.

Optimization of distilled monoglycerides production.

Monoglycerides (MG) are emulsifiers widely used in food and pharmaceutical industries. Current industrial processes for MG production consist of the interesterification of triglycerides with glycerol (GL), in the presence of inorganic catalysts at high temperatures (> 200 degrees C). This reaction is known as glycerolysis and produces a mixture of approx 50% of MG.

Optimization of biodiesel production from castor oil.

The transesterification of castor oil with ethanol in the presence of sodium ethoxide as catalyst is an exceptional option for the Brazilian biodiesel production, because the castor nut is quite available in the country. Chemically, its oil contains about 90% of ricinoleic acid that gives to the oil some beneficial characteristics such as its alcohol solubility at 30 degrees C. The transesterification variables studied in this work were reaction temperature, catalyst concentration and alcohol oil molar ratio.