Ageing vessel design and optimization for continuous very-high-gravity ethanol fermentation processes

A continuous very-high-gravity (VHG) ethanol fermentation process design, consisting of a chemostat vessel connected to several equal-sized ageing vessels configured in parallel, was developed. The objective of the developed process is to have complete glucose utilization during fermentation stage. The process design integrates the conservation of mass principle and the experimental data of collected residual glucose profiles measured under VHG conditions. An ageing vessel involves three consecutive time periods: filling, ageing and operating. The ageing time is biological relevance, and is affected by the initial glucose concentration, the ethanol concentration, and the yeast viability in an ageing vessel. The operating time period is adjustable; a short operating time means a high discharge rate in order to empty an ageing vessel. The filling time links to the selection of the number of equal-sized ageing vessels that are installed downstream to a chemostat device. The developed process features the use of equal sized fermenters for all chemostat and ageing vessels so that the vessel exchangeability and the flexibility of fermentation operation are increased.