Membrane separation and sonication in bio-ethanol production

Abstract

The importance of biofuels is growing for both environmental and economic point of view. The usage of wastes in bio-ethanol production is investigated in our paper. Cellulose contained wastes i.e. byproduct of tobacco is used for experiments. The paper is focused mainly on the investigation of the enzyme recovery that followed the saccharification process. The membrane filtration combined with sonication was used for enzyme recovery. Our results show that recovered enzyme did not lose its activity. The patterns were originated from fermented solutions made from tobacco byproducts. Based on our results, the ultrasound accompanied by a membrane separation would be a possible and effective operation of bio-ethanol production technology.

Keywords:

• Tobacco
• Enzymatic hydrolysis
• Ultrafiltration
• Ultrasound

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the project OTKA. Project number: OTKA K105021. The presentation is supported by the European Union and co-funded by the European Social Fund. Project title: “Green Energy Cooperation in Higher Education (GENCHE)” Project number: TÁMOP-4.1.1.C-12/1/KONV-2012-0012.

Notes

Presented at the Conference on Desalination for the Environment: Clean Water and Energy 11–15 May 2014, Limassol, Cyprus