Production of Chemicals from Food Processing Wastes Using a Novel Fermenter Separator: Seventh Quarterly Report, March 1, 1989-May 31, 1989.

摘要

Fermentation costs (which increase with higher product concentration) traditionally must be balanced against product recovery costs (which decrease with product concentration). A novel reactor-separator process has been developed at Purdue University to minimize product inhibition of fermentation rates. This has been shown to exhibit very high productivities -- simultaneously producing and removing a inhibitory product while maintaining a high viable cell concentration in the reactor. The objective of this study is to develop an energy efficient and economical process to convert food wastes to usable chemicals. Work is divided into two major effects (1) an applied phase which involves design and building a whey to ethanol process as well as process design and optimization and (2) a basic phase which involves investigating alternative fermentation systems and fundamental research on immobilized cell reactor systems. Accomplishments are discussed.