Yeast pellets fluidization

For ethanol production a substantial improvement over the packed bed reactor is offered by the gas-solid fluidized bed fermenter which uses a liquid instead of a solid substrate and replaces the packed bed of substrate or micro-organisms with a fluidized bed of yeast pellets (Smith et al, 1997). This system can be viewed as a standard fermentation against which the performance of different bioreactors may be assessed. 

A summary of the factors which are known to influence ethanol production from glucose in a gas-solid fluidized bed fermenter, or which may have an influence based on observations with submerged fermentations, is shown in Figure 6.1. In anaerobic beds, the key factors are the fermentation temperature and ethanol inhibition, both of which have a dramatic effect on the specific rafe of ethanol production. Bed dehydration and its influence on yeast pellet moisture content is also important, since a failure of fermentation may occur if the pellets become too dry (Bauer, 1986). 

Figure 6.4 Effect of fluidizing gas composition on the rate of ethanol production from glucose using extruded yeast pellets. Reproduced from Hayes (1998) with permission.

The presence of solutes other than ethanol might be expected to reduce the mole fractions of ethanol and water and influence the nonideality of the ethanol-water system. However, both Williams (1983), who modelled a batch wine fermentation, and Rottenbacher (1985), in ethanol sorption experiments with yeast pellets in a fluidized bed, established that the ethanol-water-yeast system behaves as if the water and ethanol content of the pellets were a simple ethanol-water solution supported by a solid matrix which influences neither mole fractions nor activity coefficients. 

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