MODELING OF AN INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL FERMENTATION AND SIMULATION OF THE PLANT BY A PROCESS SIMULATOR

The aim of the present study was the development of a general simulati on module for fermentation within the framework of existing chemical p rocess simulators. This module has been applied to an industrial plant which produces ethanol from beet molasses and fresh beet juice by Sac charomyces cerevisiae. An unstructured mechanistic model has been deve loped with kinetic laws that are based on a chemically defined reactio n scheme which satisfies stoichiometric constraints. This model can be applied to different culture conditions and takes into account second ary byproducts such as higher alcohols. These byproducts are of prime importance and need to be correctly estimated because a sequence of di stillation columns follow the fermenter in the plant. Important measur ement campaigns have been performed on the plant to validate the model . Plant operation has been successfully simulated using the same kinet ic model for both continuous and fed-batch modes of production. (C) 19 95 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.