From: Spike Jones (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Mon Jun 11 2001 - 20:56:28 MDT
Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de wrote:
> Dunno, it's hard to see how critters can make more than max 10% ethanol
> mix, with a lousy efficiency (they need to live, too) and it needs to
> be destilled still. Sorry, don't see it fly but in a few niches (such as
> on Cuba, on background of oil embargo and ubiquitous sugar byproducts).
This is something Ive wondered about. Perhaps some fermentation
guru out there can enlighten us. In the ordinary process as I understand
it, the beasties make ethanol as a waste product of sugar digestion. The
resulting alcohol eventually poisons out the reaction by killing the fermenation
agents. What if we pulled a partial vacuum on the reaction
vessel which would cause the ethanol to boil off while the microorganisms
stayed alive at about 35C? We would add in heat to maintain that temperature
while the fermentation vat is held at about .3 atmospheres. Then you would
just keep adding biomass and taking off ethanol. Wouldn't that work? Is
it too much energy is lost pumping down the pressure? Guess we could
calculate it, eh? spike
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