A novel fluidised bed bioreactor for fermentation of glucose to ethanol using alginate immobilised yeast

Summary A novel fluidised bed bioreactor has been developed which avoids the problems of particle flotation and gas logging seen in such bioreactors by arranging for the bed to be simultaneously fluidised from the top and bottom with fluid removal from a side port. With alginate immobilised yeast, the bed converted glucose to ethanol at a 27% higher rate than a similar conventional fluidised bed bioreactor using similar conditions.