Optimization of Bioethanol Distillation Process – Evaluation of Different Configurations of the Fermentation Process

Abstract Process simulation was used to analyze bioethanol distillation process, which requires a large amount of thermal energy. As it is shown in this study, in the ethanol production process the fermentation stage has a significant impact on energy consumption in the purification step. Thus, alternative configurations in the fermentation and distillation processes were proposed and evaluated. The results showed that vacuum extractive fermentation coupled with triple effect distillation presented the lowest energy demand among the studied configurations.