Jaime Finguerut
CTC- Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira SA, Brazil
Title: Industrial production of bioethanol from sugarcane; Use of a large-scale non-sterile self-adaptive bioprocess for fermentation
Biography
Biography: Jaime Finguerut
Abstract
Even Brazil being well known by its successful bioethanol production from sugarcane that make possible to replace a large proportion of the Otto cycle fuel used by a very large car fl eet most formed by fl exible fuel engines, since 1975, but, not many people know how this ethanol is being produced. In this paper, the main characteristics of the bioprocess that is being used in Brazil since the 30’s of last century and its evolution will be discussed. Th is process was intensifi ed by the use of a total cell recycle by means of centrifugation that separates selectively the larger particles and rejects the smaller, so favoring the yeasts to the bacteria. Also an acid shock was used which makes the competition with acid producing bacteria more favorable to the yeasts and also kills the newcomers, the contaminant yeasts that are not used to acid shocks. Th e feedstocks added to the process changes every day since sugarcane has to be harvested fresh and is not storable, and the sugarcane fi elds extends to a larger diameter around the plant (30 km) with diff erent types of soils and uneven local climates, as well as diff erent sugarcane varieties. These conditions makes its variation intrinsic to the business, so this process will adapt itself every day. Aft er many changes, the heterogeneous yeast population grows differently and only the most adapted ones will be enriched and recycled to the next cycle. Concentrating on all this makes a very high productivity, low fermentation time, high robustness and resilience, with low operational and fi xed costs.