Enhanced isobutanol recovery from fermentation broth for sustainable biofuels production

Isobutanol is a highly attractive renewable alternative to conventional fossil fuels, with superior fuel properties as compared to ethanol and 1-butanol. Even though the isobutanol production by fermentation has significant potential, complex downstream processing is limiting the wide-spreading of this technology. Accordingly, this original...

Bioethanol separation by a new pass-through distillation process

Distillation is the most used separation technology at industrial-scale, but using distillation in bio-based processes (e.g. fermentation processes to produce bioethanol) is quite challenging when mild temperatures are needed to keep the microbes alive. Vacuum distillation can be used to perform evaporation at low temperatures, but setting a...

Thermally self-sufficient heat pump-assisted azeotropic dividing-wall column for biofuels recovery from isopropanol-butanol-ethanol fermentation

Isopropanol-butanol-ethanol (IBE) fermentation is a superior biofuel production technology as compared to acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation due to the better fuel properties of the obtained products. However, low product concentrations, thermodynamic constraints and the presence of microorganisms lead to complex downstream processing...

Process systems engineering perspectives on eco-efficient downstream processing of volatile biochemicals from fermentation

Increasing concerns over environmental pollution, climate change and energy security are driving a necessary transition from fossil carbon sources to more sustainable alternatives. Due to lower environmental impact, biochemicals are rapidly gaining significance as a potential renewable solution, particularly of interest in Europe. In this...

Advanced purification of isopropanol and acetone from syngas fermentation

BACKGROUND: Isopropanol and acetone production by syngas fermentation is a promising alternative to conventional fossil carbon-dependent production. However, this alternative technology has not yet been scaled up to an industrial level owing to the relatively low product concentrations (about 5 wt% in total). This original research aims to...

Advanced downstream processing of bioethanol from syngas fermentation

Syngas fermentation is used industrially to produce diluted bioethanol (about 1–6 wt%). This research study proposes a novel downstream process that recovers bioethanol in an energy-efficient and cost-effective manner, improves fermentation yield by recycling all fermentation broth components (microbes, acetate and water), and is designed for...

Turning waste into value: eco-efficient recovery of by-products from biomass pretreatment in lignocellulosic biorefineries

This original research contributes to enhancing the viability of biorefineries through recovering valuable by-products from the liquid remaining after the biomass pretreatment by hot liquid water. A novel downstream processing method is developed for the recovery of acetic acid, formic acid, furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) by...