PRODUCTION OF ETHANOL

BY: Ahmed Sherif -111065

Aya Khashab -132043
Aya Sayed - 129089
Donia Abdel Nasser - 131026
A Report Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Coursework
Requirements for Petroleum Production Processes Module.

Chemical Engineering 2018/2019

 ABSTRACT
In this project report, Ethanol fermentation production method is used in order to
produce ethanol. Using Aspen Hysys V8.8, a process flow diagram is simulated using
feed streams; wash water, from fermentation and stream A (water). First, from ferm
stream is fed to the CO2 vent column, where it separates CO2 in the upper stream to enter
the CO2 wash absorber column using wash water and beer from the bottom. The beer is
then fed to an absorber (conc.) to be washed with stream A where the to light stream is
then fed to the refluxed absorber whose bottom stream is then fed to the distillation
column (react) along with the react feed to produce ethanol. The amount of ethanol
produced in the 1st product stream is 5.84 Kgmol/hr.

Ethanol, Fermentation.

i
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... i
LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................iv
LIST OF EQUATIONS..................................................................................................... v
1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... 6
2. BODY OF REPORT ................................................................................................. 8
2.1. Methods of ethanol production ........................................................................... 8
2.1.1 Production from Ethene using steam ........................................................... 8
2.1.2 Production of fermented ethanol from sugarcane using yeast ................... 10
2.1.3 Production of fermented ethanol from starch using yeast .......................... 11
2.1.4 Production of ethanol from biomass waste using bacteria ......................... 12
Environmental impact of ethanol production .................................................... 13
2.2.1 Ethanol and Air Quality .............................................................................. 15
2.2.2 Ethanol and Water quality and availability ................................................. 16
2.2.3 Ethanol and Soil Impact ............................................................................. 18
Ethanol applications ......................................................................................... 19
3. HYSYS simulation Case ........................................................................................ 21
4. Material Streams Summary .................................................................................... 21
5. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 27
6. References ............................................................................................................. 28

ii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 : Ethanol production scheme using ethene (Greener industry, 2018) ............... 8
Figure 2 : pressure swing adsorption (The Essiential Chemical Industry, 2016) ............. 9
Figure 3 : Ethanol production from sugarcane scheme ................................................. 10
Figure 4 : Production of ethanol from starch by dry milling scheme .............................. 11
Figure 5: ethanol production using corn by wet milling method scheme. ...................... 11
Figure 6 : ethanol production from biomass scheme ..................................................... 12
Figure 7: Ethanol CO2 Cycle (Sustinable CO2 Cycle, 2015). ....................................... 13
Figure 8: CO2 Emissions by Fuel Type (Ethanol: Benifits and Issues, 2007). .............. 15
Figure 9: Emissions from Different Fuels Production and Distribution .......................... 16
Figure 10: Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution Sources Entering Mexico Gulf (Alexander
et al, 2011). ................................................................................................................... 17
Figure 11 : HYSYS Case simulation ............................................................................. 21

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 LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Chemical and Physical properties of ethanol (PubChem, 2018) ........................ 6
Table 2: Ethanol Fate in the Environment (RFA, 2015). ................................................ 14
Table 3 : material stream conditions table part 1 ........................................................... 21
Table 4 : material stream conditions table part 2 ........................................................... 22
Table 5 : material stream conditions table part 3 ........................................................... 22
Table 6 : material stream conditions table part 4 ........................................................... 23
Table 7 : material stream conditions table part 5 ........................................................... 23
Table 8 : material stream composition table part 1 ........................................................ 24
Table 9 : material stream composition table part 2 ........................................................ 25

iv
 LIST OF EQUATIONS
Equation 1 : Catalytic hydration of ethene ....................................................................... 8

v
 1. INTRODUCTION
Ethanol which was named by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
(IUPAC), also called grain alcohol, drinking alcohol or ethyl alcohol is a simple alcohol
with a chemical formula of C2H5OH. It consists of an ethyl group linked to a hydroxyl group
and is often referred to as EtOH. It is a flammable and volatile colourless liquid with a
characteristic vinous odor and pungent taste that is usually produced by yeasts that
ferment sugars via petrochemical processes. Ethanol was first used in 1826 to power an
engine and in 1876, the inventor of modern four cycle internal combustion engine
Nicolaus Otto used it power an early engine (Bevill, 2008). In the recent times, ethanol is
also used in the medical field, manufacturing industries and for scientific chemical testing
due to some of its chemical and physical properties that are shown in table 1

Table 1 Chemical and Physical properties of ethanol (PubChem, 2018)

Appearance Colourless liquid

Molecular weight 46.069g/mol
density 0.7893 g/cm3 (20OC)
Melting point -114.14 ± 0.03 OC
Boiling point 78.24 ± 0.09OC
Solubility in water Miscible
Vapor pressure 5.95 kPa (20OC)
Acidity (pKa) 15.9 (H2O)
Magnetic susceptibility (x) -33.60x10-6 cm3.mol
Refractive index nD 1.3611
viscosity 1.2mPa.s (20OC)
Dipole moment 1.69 D
Log P -0.18
Vapor density 1.59 (Air = 1 )
Flash point 12OF
vapor pressure 5.8kPa (20OC)
Auto ignition 365 OC

6
Heat of combustion 1336.8 KJ/mol (25OC)
Heat of vaporization 43.32 KJ/mol (25OC)
Surface tension 21.97 mN/m (25OC)
Ionization potential 10.47eV

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 2. BODY OF REPORT
2.1. Methods of ethanol production
Ethanol industry is considered an old important industry due to its massive applications.
There are three methods for ethanol production; the synthetic route which is the ethanol
production from ethene using steam, fermentation of sugar and starch using yeast, and
production from biomass waste using bacteria.

2.1.1 Production from Ethene using steam

Figure 1 : Ethanol production scheme using ethene (Greener industry, 2018)

One of the route of ethanol production is the catalytic hydration of the ethene using steam
and phosphoric acid which is absorbed on the silica bed adsorbent as a catalyst. The type
of the reactor is fixed bed reactor. The reaction of the catalytic hydration reaction is an
exothermic reversible reaction as shown in equation 1:

Equation 1 : Catalytic hydration of ethene

Catalyst
C2 H4 +H2 O ↔ C2 H5 OH

According to le Chatilter principle, since the reaction is exothermic the reaction is favored
to be operated at low temperature, high pressure and steam quantity in order to shift the
reaction forward. The optimum temperature used is 500 K in presence of the catalyst.
However, the increasing the pressure will increase the capital cost in addition to the
operating cost. The optimum pressure is from 60-70 atmosphere. The stream is
introduced in large quantity to obtain high ethylene conversion but unfortunately, when

8
the pressure increases the catalyst absorbs the water and the catalyst activity will be
decreases and diluted. The optimum ethylene to water ratio is 1: 0.6.

Since the ethanol produced with water which is considered an azeotrope mixture.
Therefore, further purification processing must be proceeded. There are two ways for
purification; using distillation column or the pressure swing absorption.

A) Distillation method:

The produced product is aqueous solution of 95% ethanol and since this mixture ia a
mixture of constant boiling point mixture however, the distillation method will not reach
the targeted purity for the desired product for such mixtures.

B) Pressure swing adsorption:

The more efficient method is the pressure swing adsorption using zeolite molecular sieve
which is utilized on large scale to remove the water from the azotrope mixture. This
process is achieved through passing the mixture in a column that have molecular sieve
pellets of 3A in order to produce pure ethanol as shown in figure 1.the ethanol and water
is polar however, the molecular sieve adsorb the water molecules through pores since
the water molecule diameter is smaller than the ethanol. These water molecules is
drained in a cage of zeolites and the ethanol is produced with more purity than the
distillation method. (The Essiential Chemical Industry, 2016)

Figure 2 : pressure swing adsorption (The Essiential

Chemical Industry, 2016)
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 2.1.2 Production of fermented ethanol from sugarcane using yeast
The yeast has facultative anaerobe property. The sugar is converted to carbon dioxide
and water in the aerobic environment while converts into ethanol and carbon dioxide in
the anaerobic environment. Therefore, since the target is to produce ethanol, the
engineers must exclude the oxygen upon producing fermented ethanol.in order to
increase the production rate of the ethanol, the fermentation process must be accelerated
since it is slow process. First the process is proceeded in a propagation tank since it
highly activate the yeast where water, mash, enzymes, nutrients, and yeast are mixed
together in order to rehydrate the yeast (Shinnosuke Onuki, 2013).

The process begins by harvesting the sugar cane using manual labor and transported by
trunks to be processed. Afterwards, the sugar cans is milled using water jet in order to
produce aqueous solution of 10-15% solids where the extraction of sucrose proceeded.in
order to prevent the sugar inversion which is sugar hydrolysis a clarification step is
proceeded, where the aqueous solution is heated up to 115 °C and lime and sulfuric acid
solution are added for treating purpose which cause the precipitance of the unwanted
inorganic compounds. Afterwards, the fermentation process is proceeded as mentioned
in propagation tanks after cooling the treated solution since the reaction is exothermic
reaction (Cliffor, 2018).

Figure 3 : Ethanol production from sugarcane scheme

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 2.1.3 Production of fermented ethanol from starch using yeast
The starch is converted to ethanol through to main processes; dry milling and wet milling.

A) Dry milling

The dry milling is considered the more efficient than wet milling. The scheme for dry
milling is represented in figure 4.

Figure 4 : Production of ethanol from starch by dry milling scheme

B) Wet milling

In the wet drilling the grains components is separated before the saccharification process.
This will lead to the production of high value products the scheme for dry milling is
represented in figure 5 (Shinnosuke Onuki, 2013).

Figure 5: ethanol production using corn by wet milling method scheme.

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 2.1.4 Production of ethanol from biomass waste using bacteria
The biomass waste contains complex natural polymer that is made of mainly sugar which
cannot be fermented to ethanol using yeast therefore bacteria is used for fermentation of
the sugar found in the biomass waste. As shown in figure 6, the waste biomass under
goes a hemicellulose hydrolysis in order to produce a wide range of sugar that includes;
mannose, xylose, arabinose and galactose. Afterwards, the product is separated from the
cellulose using separator in order to under goes further hydrolysis which is cellulose
hydrolysis that convert it to glucose which is fermented to ethanol, the second route is the
xylose which is converted into ethanol, both route use bacteria. Both product are
introduced to distillation tower to separate the ethanol from light residue. The bacteria
used is the E-coil.the usage of the waste in order to produce ethanol is considered a
solver for the waste disposal and environmental concerns since burning the waste begun
to take the first place (greener industry, 2018).

Figure 6 : ethanol production from biomass scheme

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 Environmental impact of ethanol production
Ethanol production used in fuels has raised several concerns regarding the environment
such as water quality and availability, soils, air pollutants and greenhouse gases and land
use change (LUC). According to NRC/NAS report, the environmental impact of ethanol
production can be positive, negative or neutral depending on the concern under study.
Most of the environmental effects are due to the feedstock of the plant which is the corn
agriculture step, while other steps such as transportation, production, distribution and
usage contribute with less percentage of impacts (Hoekman, 2018).

Ethanol’s environmental effect in air can be illustrated as a carbon dioxide cycle such that
after combustion, the CO2 produced is recycled to the plant as it is used to manufacture
cellulose in a photosynthesis cycle. The production process utilizes renewable energy
sources such that no carbon dioxide is ejected to the environment which makes ethanol
an environmental friendly energy source as shown in figure 7. Moreover, Ethanol derived
from biomass is considered as the only fuel that does not affect greenhouse gases
(Chandel, 2007).

Figure 7: Ethanol CO2 Cycle (Sustinable CO2 Cycle, 2015).

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Since ethanol is derived from natural materials and it is composed of about 35 % oxygen,
it undergoes rapid degradation in the environment. The biodegradation process takes
place in soil, ground water and surface water with a half-life time that ranges from hours
up to ten days shown in table 1. According to the Massachusetts Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP), it stated that in surface water, ethanol biodegrades
rapidly, and its half-life is about 0.25-1 day. It completely dissociates in water, however in
solutions, adsorption and volatilization are not significant in either ground water/ soil or
surface water. Therefore, ethanol is considered as short-life compound in environment
which leads to low risk on the aquatic organisms. In addition to this, ethanol forms a
solution once it is discharged because it is highly soluble in water (RFA, 2015).

Table 2: Ethanol Fate in the Environment (RFA, 2015).

Medium Biodegradation Rate Ethanol Fate

Soil 0.1-2.1 days Rapid Biodegradation.
Surface Water 0.25-1 day Rapid mix with water and rapid
biodegradation in surface water.
Ground Water 0.1-2.1 days Rapid Biodegradation.
Air 0.5-5 days Ethanol vapor settles in low areas and it
disperses fast.
Sanitary Sewers 0.5-5 days Easy volatilization and biodegradation.

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 2.2.1 Ethanol and Air Quality
Gasoline and diesel fuels contributes with about 41% of the greenhouse gases in the U.S.
such that the human activities led to a significant increase of anthropogenic greenhouse
gases over the past 200 years. The main advantage of biomass fuels is the reduction of
GHG pollution. Despite that ethanol is considered as a proper solution to the climate
change problem as it recirculates carbon in air, there is several greenhouse gases to
consider. Earlier in 1997, the U.S. Government Accountability Office stated that ethanol
production plants produce more percentage of nitrous oxide and greenhouse gases than
gasoline. On the other and, the gasoline fuel cycle produces more amounts of the less
potent gases; carbon dioxide. In 2007, Jan F. Kreider and professor Peter S. Curtiss
reported that carbon dioxide produced from corn-based ethanol are more harmful than
that produced from conventional gasoline. It was found that the carbon emissions in the
life-cycle are 50% higher for ethanol than fossil fuels. In 2008, Timothy Searchinger et al.
stated that ethanol produced from corn doubles the greenhouse emissions over a period
of 30 years and increases gases for 167 years (Green, 2008).

According to Argonne National Laboratory, using ethanol blended fuels leads to reducing
carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by about 5.7 million tons in the U.S. in 2003, which
is equivalent to greenhouse gas removal from more than 853,000 cars (Dourante, 1996).

However, one of the main disadvantages of using ethanol fuel is aldehyde predominantly
acetaldehydes emissions are higher than the one obtained from gasoline. Acetaldehyde
emissions produces less serious health effects when compared to gasoline
formaldehydes emissions (Chandel, 2007).

Figure 8: CO2 Emissions by Fuel Type (Ethanol: Benifits and Issues, 2007).

15
Despite that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported a reduction
of GHG emissions from ethanol fuels, they stated that ethanol represents an issue for
other air pollutants. According to EPA, ethanol increases chemicals’ emissions leading to
ozone production which is considered one of the most challenging environmental
problems. Therefore, it is expected for the total emissions of volatile organic compounds
and nitrogen oxide to undergo an increase of about 41,000 and 83,000 tons. Similarly, it
may undergo VOC rise of 4 to 5 % and NOx increase of 6 to 7% as well. In 2004, California
Air Resources Board (CARB) reported that gasoline/ethanol blend increased VOC
emissions by 45%. By 2006, California’s South Coast Air Quality Management stated that
gasoline blended with 5.7% ethanol may contribute as 70 tons of VOC per day (Green,
2008).

Figure 9: Emissions from Different Fuels Production and Distribution

Several studies implied limitations regarding ethanol fuels usage:

1. By decreasing ethanol content, CO emissions decrease.

2. By increasing ethanol content, THC or NMHC behavior is unclear.
3. By increasing ethanol content, exhaust VOC increases.
4. Acetaldehyde emissions are directly proportional to ethanol content.
5. Exhaust PM undergoes a reduction by increasing ethanol content (Hoekman,
2018).

2.2.2 Ethanol and Water quality and availability

EPA has suggested that ethanol production plants as well as corn feedstock production
are consuming large amounts of water. The amount of water required depends on the

16
type of the soil and the growing conditions. The range of water usage in ethanol
production is 1.5 to 4 gallons for each ethanol gallon produced. However, new plants tend
to design optimum plants to reduce this amount. In addition to this, water treatment plants
are built to ensure the neutrality of water discharged. According to the U.S. Department
of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, about 70% of water is consumed in
the boiler system inside the plant (Durante, 2005).

The National Academy of Sciences has reported that corn agriculture requires more
pesticides and fertilizers than any other biofuel. Hence, the contamination increases, and
the nitrogen runoff negatively affected the Mississippi River. So, the more ethanol
produced, the more corn to be grown and hence the more fertilizers and pesticides in
water sources. This may cause dead zoned and water shortage in most of water supplies.
Each summer, when nitrogen fertilizers in the Mississippi hits the Mexico Gulf, a dead
zone is formed; which is a region where there is oxygen shortage that negatively affect
the aquatic life. A study done by the University of British Columbia reported that if the
U.S. continued to meet its ethanol production plan; 15 to 36 million gallons of cellulosic
and corn ethanol, the chance of nitrogen hitting Mexico Gulf will rise by 10 – 34 % (Green,
2008).

Figure 10: Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution Sources Entering Mexico Gulf
(Alexander et al, 2011).

17
 2.2.3 Ethanol and Soil Impact
Corn agriculture to produce ethanol leads to significant two concerns; soil erosion and
soil organic carbon. Soil erosion takes place due to excessive use of the soil and hence
it decreases the activity of agriculture and the soil quality. It also affects sedimentation
and causes other problems. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is reduced due to increased corn
cropping. SOC must be maintained at high levels in order to enrich productivity,
biodiversity and water retention. Similarly, as erosion, SOC issue depends on the site
where organic matter accumulation occurs. The loss of organic matter due to erosion
leads to GHG emissions (Hoekman, 2018).

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 Ethanol applications
Ethanol has been used in many applications some of which are:

1. Personal care products

Ethanol can be used in different types of care products regarding the skin and
hair. It acts as an astringent to help in cleaning the skin, in lotions it is used as
a preservative that ensures that the ingredient of the lotion will not separate
and in hair sprays to help maintain the hair shape and stick to the hair for the
longest possible time. Also it is a common ingredient in hand sanitizers and
wipes because it is effective in killing microorganisms like bacteria, viruses and
fungi. It denatures their proteins and dissolves their lipids (Chemical Safety
Facts, 2018).

2. Household products
Ethanol and water are easily mixable together along with many organic
compounds thus making it an effective solvent to be used in paints, markers,
varnish and lacquers along with house cleaning products (Chemical Safety
Facts, 2018).

3. Medical solvent
Ethanol in high concentrations (1 to 25%) is used to dissolved medications that
are insoluble in water like crack cocaine, pain medication and mouth washes.
It is also used as an antimicrobial preservative in more than 700 liquid
preparations of medicine including iron supplements, ranitidine, mannitol and
over the counter cough medicine (Adams & Rans, 2013).

4. Food additives
Ethanol helps in distributing the food coloring evenly as well as enhancing the
flavor of food extracts (Chemical Safety Facts, 2018).

5. Fuel

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 Ethanol is found in more than 97% of the gasoline in the U.S. typically in a
mixture named E10 that is usually made of 10% ethanol and the rest gasoline.
This is to oxygenate the fuel and reduce air pollution because ethanol has a
higher octane number (Chemical Safety Facts, 2018).

6. Antidote
Used as an antidote to ethylene glycol and methanol poisoning (medlineplus,
2018).

7. Fuel cells
Commercial fuel cells operate on reformed hydrogen, natural gas or methanol
but ethanol is a good alternative due to its wide availability, low cost, low toxicity
and high purity (Badwal, Giddey, kulkarni, Goel, & Basu, 2015).

8. Low-temperature liquid
Ethanol is used in laboratories as a cooling bath because of it’s low melting
point (-114.14oC) and low toxicity.

9. Pharmacology
Extensively, ethanol is metabolized by the liver particularly by an enzyme called
CYP450. It increases the stomach’s acid secretions (Harger, 1958) (Chemical
Safety Facts, 2018).

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 3. HYSYS simulation Case

Figure 11 : HYSYS Case simulation

4. Material Streams Summary

Table 3 : material stream conditions table part 1

Stream unit Wash H2O From Ferm Stream A CO2 Stream

Vapour
0 0.0277 1 1
fraction

temperature OC 25 30 140 26.05

Pressure kPa 101.4 101.4 101.4 101.4

Kgmole
Molar flow 130 2400 610.6 64.71
/h

Mass flow Kg/h 2342 4.671e+004 1.100e+004 2792

Liquid
m3/h 2.308 45.94 10.84 3.224
volume flow

Heat flow kJ/h -3.704e+007 -6.892e+008 -1.448e+008 -2.515e+007

21
Table 4 : material stream conditions table part 2

To CO2 To
Stream unit beer Tolight
wash fermentor
Vapour
1 0 0 1
fraction

temperature OC 30 30 33.34 94.55

Pressure kPa 101.4 101.4 101.4 101.4

Kgmole/
Molar flow 66.47 2334 131.8 327.9
h

Mass flow Kg/h 2857 4.385e+004 2407 7718

Liquid
m3/h 3.219 43.55 2.377 8.030
volume flow

Heat flow kJ/h -2.557e+007 -6.636e+008 -3.745e+007 -7.792e+007

Table 5 : material stream conditions table part 3

Stream unit Rect feed Stillage A Light vent 2nd ETOH

Vapour
0 0 1 0
fraction
temperatur
OC 100 100 49.66 49.66
e

Pressure kPa 101.4 101.4 101.4 101.4

Kgmole
Molar flow 1910 706.6 1.600 94.75
/h

Mass flow Kg/h 3.440e+004 1.273e+004 67.69 3331

22
 Liquid
volume m3/h 33.90 12.54 7.061e-002 3.851
flow

Heat flow kJ/h -5.332e+008 -1.973e+008 -5.590e+005 -2.632e+007

Table 6 : material stream conditions table part 4

Stream unit Stillage B To react Rect vap Rect dist

Vapour
0 0 1 0
fraction

temperature OC 100 94.54 78.07 78.07

Pressure kPa 101.4 101.4 101.4 101.4

Molar flow Kgmole/h 2135 231.6 0.1000 4.656e-002

Mass flow Kg/h 3.846e+004 4319 4.305 2

Liquid
m3/h 37.90 4.85 5.286e-003 2.456e-003
volume flow
-
Heat flow kJ/h -5.961e+008 -6.470e+007 -1.262+004
2.325e+004

Table 7 : material stream conditions table part 5

Stream unit 1st product fusel

Vapour fraction 0 0

temperature OC 78.12 100

Pressure kPa 101.4 101.4

Molar flow Kgmole/h 5.840 0.1665

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 Mass flow Kg/h 249.6 3

Liquid volume
m3/h 0.3060 2.956e-003
flow

Heat flow kJ/h -1.583e+006 -4.649e+004

Table 8 : material stream composition table part 1

Component in 1-
ethanol H20 CO2 methanol Acetic acid
mole fraction propanol

Wash H2O 0 1 0 0 0 0

From ferm 0.0269 0.9465 0.0266 0 0 0

Stream A 0 1 0 0 0 0

CO2 stream 0 0.0333 0.9667 0 0 0

To CO2 wash 0.0170 0.0409 0.9422 0 0 0

Beer 0.0272 0.9723 0.0005 0 0 0

Stillage A 0 1 0 0 0 0

To fermentor 0.0086 0.9910 0.0005 0 0 0

Tolight 0.1933 0.8030 0.0037 0 0 0

Rect feed 0 1 0 0 0 0

Light vent 0.1949 0.0808 0.7242 0 0 0

2nd ETOH 0.6105 0.3889 0.0006 0 0 0

To rect 0.0226 0.9773 0 0 0 0

Rect vap 0.8902 0.1077 0.0021 0 0 0

Rect dist 0.8890 0.1110 0 0 0 0

24
 1st product 0.8813 0.1187 0 0 0 0

Fusel 0.0001 0.9999 0 0 0 0

Stillage B 0 1 0 0 0 0

Table 9 : material stream composition table part 2

Component in
2-propanol 1-butanol 3-M-1-C4ol 2-Pentanol Glycerol
mole fraction

Wash H2O 0 0 0 0 0

From ferm 0 0 0 0 0

Stream A 0 0 0 0 0

CO2 stream 0 0 0 0 0

To CO2 wash 0 0 0 0 0

Beer 0 0 0 0 0

Stillage A 0 0 0 0 0

To fermentor 0 0 0 0 0

Tolight 0 0 0 0 0

Rect feed 0 0 0 0 0

Light vent 0 0 0 0 0

25
2nd ETOH 0 0 0 0 0

To rect 0 0 0 0 0

Rect vap 0 0 0 0 0

Rect dist 0 0 0 0 0

1st product 0 0 0 0 0

Fusel 0 0 0 0 0

Stillage B 0 0 0 0 0

26
 5. CONCLUSION
After simulating the process flow diagram, it was concluded that 5.84 Kgmol/hr of
ethanol was produced. In order to accomplish the aim of producing ethanol, the given
process flow diagram of ethanol production through fermentation process was simulated
on Aspen HYSYS V8.8.First, the Ferm stream is introduced to CO2 vent column in order
to separate the beer which is sent to Conc. absorber in order to wash stream A , this
absorber produce (to light ) stream. Afterwards, the upper stream is fed to another
absorber (refluxed absorber) where the the bottom stream is fed with side product of the
refluxed absorber to a distillation column (React.) in order to separate ethanol (1st product
stream).

27
 6. References
Adams, K., & Rans, T. (2013). Adverse reactions to alcohol and alcoholic beverages. In
annals of allergy, Asthma and immunology (pp. 439-450).
Badwal, S., Giddey, S., kulkarni, A., Goel, J., & Basu, S. (2015). In
http://braeunig.us/space/propel.htm (pp. 80-103).
Bevill, K. (2008). Ethanol producer magazine. In Building the minnesota model (pp. 114-
120).
Chemical Safety Facts. (2018). Ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Retrieved from
chemicalsafetyfacts.org: https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/ethanol/
Cliffor, C. B. (2018). Sugarcane Ethanol Production. Retrieved from The College of
Earth and Mineral Sciences: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/egee439/node/647
greener industry. (2018). Fermentation using bacteria. Retrieved from greener industry:
http://greener-industry.org.uk/pages/ethanol/ethanol8PM3.htm
Harger, R. (1958). The pharmacology and toxicology of alcohol. Journal of the American
Medical Association, 202-2199.
medlineplus. (2018). Methanol poisoning. Retrieved from medlineplus.gov:
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002680.htm
PubChem. (2018). Ethanol. Retrieved from Pubchem:
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/702
Shinnosuke Onuki, J. A. (2013). Ethanol production, purification, and analysis
techniques: a review . Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/HP-ProBook-
450/Downloads/Ethanol%20production%20purification%20and%20analysis%20t
echniques_%20a%20revi.pdf
The Essiential Chemical Industry. (2016, october 27). Ethanol . Retrieved from The
essiential chemical industry:
http://essentialchemicalindustry.org/chemicals/ethanol.html

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