Suitability of anaerobic digestion effluent as process water for corn fuel ethanol fermentation

A corn fuel ethanol plant integrated with anaerobic digestion treatment of thin stillage increases the net energy balance. Furthermore, the anaerobic digestion effluent (ADE) can be reused as a potential substitute for process water in the ethanol fermentation. In this study, the suitability of ADE...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water science and technology 2014-01, Vol.69 (9), p.1894-1899
Main Authors: KE WANG, ZHANG, Jian-Hua, PEI LIU, MAO, Zhong-Gui
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ammonium
Ammonium Compounds
Anaerobic digestion
Anaerobic processes
Anaerobic treatment
Anaerobiosis
Applied sciences
Biofuels - analysis
Bioreactors
Corn
Energy balance
Ethanol
Ethanol - chemistry
Ethanol - metabolism
Exact sciences and technology
Fermentation
Fungi
Metabolism
Nitrogen
Pollution
Process water
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Stillage
Urea
Vegetables
Waste Disposal, Fluid - methods
Water treatment and pollution
Zea mays
Zea mays - metabolism
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A corn fuel ethanol plant integrated with anaerobic digestion treatment of thin stillage increases the net energy balance. Furthermore, the anaerobic digestion effluent (ADE) can be reused as a potential substitute for process water in the ethanol fermentation. In this study, the suitability of ADE as process water for corn ethanol fermentation was investigated by analyzing the potential inhibitory components in the ADE. It was found that ammonium influenced the growth and metabolism of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Maximum ethanol production was obtained when the concentration of ammonium nitrogen was 200 mg/L, and ammonium could replace urea as the nitrogen source for S. cerevisiae under this concentration. In the ethanol fermentation with a higher concentration of ammonium, more glycerol was produced, thereby resulting in the decrease of ethanol production. In addition, components except ammonium in the ADE caused no inhibition to ethanol production. These results suggest that ADE could be reused as process water for corn ethanol fermentation without negative effect when ammonium concentration is well controlled.
ISSN:0273-1223
1996-9732
DOI:10.2166/wst.2014.094