Ethanol production by flash-stripping fermentation

In order to improve the productivity of ethanol fermentation, a new ethanol fermentation process coupled with gas stripping and vacuum flash, named as flash-stripping fermentation, was proposed. The process provided the advantages of both stripping fermentation and flash fermentation, and improved the ethanol productivity by increasing the in-situ ethanol removal. The batch fermentation experiment indicates that flash-stripping fermentation has the advantage of higher ethanol productivity compared with traditional fermentation, stripping fermentation and flash fermentation; the fermentation efficiency can be enhanced further by using high temperature fermentation with thermophilic yeast, increasing the gas flux and feed rate to the flash tank. The process is simple and efficient. It is promising in industrial applications.