Plant Design Practice Lab (PPE-404L)

Proposal

Optimization of Ethanol Production Process using Response

Surface Methodology and simulating using ASPEN Plus

Submitted by:

Group no 11

2016-PE-01 Moazzam Shahzad

2016-PE-21 Abdulrehman Ishfaq

2016-PE-44 Mirza Aqeel

2016-PE-46 Saifullah

Submitted to:

Ma’am Nida Abid

 Table of Contents
1 PROBLEM STATEMENT............................................................................................................ 3

2 OBJECTIVE .................................................................................................................................. 3

3 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 3

4 LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................................................. 5

5 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................ 7

6 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................. 8
1 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Optimization of Ethanol Production Process based on Process Parameters using Response Surface
Methodology(RSM) and simulating using ASPEN Plus

2 OBJECTIVE
Glucose production is simulated by Aspen plus for the fermentation process. The mathematical
model for ethanol production is developed by response surface methodology (RSM) technology.
The effecting parameters for the process are feed concentration of the raw material, temperature
and pressure. The statistical tests are used to check these parameters’ performance and we find out
that non-linear quadratic polynomial equation is best for this process behaviour. Process
optimization is done to get the maximum concentration of ethanol. This approach performed in
such a way that it can be adopted in industrial applications for the chemical process design. The
optimization will also include the overall cost optimization as the objective is to enhance the yield
and to decrease the conversion of the process which leads to more effective process.

3 INTRODUCTION
Fermentation process of glucose for ethanol production will be simulated in Aspen plus. Further,
we will employ response surface methodology (RSM) to develop a mathematical model for ethanol
production. The key operating parameters influencing the process performance are identified to be
feed concentration of raw material, temperature and pressure of flash vaporizer. The statistical
tests are used to examine the effect of these parameters on ethanol production.

Ethanol is emerging as a potentially sustainable and renewable energy resource in the world. The
application of ethanol and ethanol-based fuels have attracted much attention worldwide owing to
their environmental and economic advantages. Ethanol is obtained as a result of fermentation of
various renewable resources available in nature. The ease of availability of raw materials for
production of ethanol and wide range of its potential uses, especially energy related, have made
ethanol a common subject of interest to many of the researchers in recent times. Ethanol offers
unique characteristics including high octane number and low carbon content that results in
relatively fewer emission of harmful flue gases, thereby making it a viable green fuel alternative.
Number of commercial process flowsheet simulator software applications are available for
industrial as well as research and development purposes. The common ones include Aspen plus,
Hyprotech, Chemcad and PRO/II.14 In this work, we make use of Aspen plus for process
simulation of ethanol production. We specifically focus on studying fermentation of glucose for
producing ethanol. Fermentation of glucose (C6H12O6) is carried out under the action of yeast
resulting in the production of ethanol (C2H5OH) and carbon dioxide (CO2) as shown in the
following reaction:

C6H12O6 (aq) → 2C2H5OH (l) + 2CO2 (g)

Furthermore, in any industrial scale chemical production process, there are several independent
operating variables that affect the performance of the unit operations and processes. Mathematical
tools aid in designing experiments to identify the important parameters impacting the process
output with minimum number of test runs. Response surface methodology (RSM) is one such
statistical tool that gives us the relationship between various independent operating variables to
that of the required responses of the process.

RSM allows direct observations from experimental data about the output of a method in a given
region. In fact, this knowledge may be fed to commercial software for further process review.
Aspen Plus is a commonly used device for the simulation of steam reforming H2 development
[1,2].
4 FLOW SHEET

Fig.1. Flow sheet of rthanol production

5 LITERATURE REVIEW
Fermentation process of glucose for ethanol production is simulated in Aspen plus. Further, we
employ response surface methodology (RSM) to develop a mathematical model for ethanol
production. The key operating parameters influencing the process performance are identified to be
feed concentration of raw material, temperature and pressure of flash vaporizer. The statistical
tests are used to examine the effect of these parameters on ethanol production. The results show
that non-linear quadratic polynomial equation is best suited for representing the process behavior.
Moreover, process optimization is performed using the model to maximize the concentration of
ethanol, subject to process constraints. The optimum values of feed concentration of glucose,
temperature and pressure of flash vaporizer are found to be 0.5 (w/w), 55°C and 5.5 atm
respectively. The approach demonstrated here serves as an efficacious method to determine
feasible design space for chemical processes and can be adopted in industrial applications.[1]

Table 1. Alcoholic fermentation (year wise) of Punjab Purple for wine production [4]

Initial sucrose content is about 40 - 45 % and basically the density of molasses does not reflect the
true value of sucrose content. However, the Brix value has been used traditionally, the optimal
Brix value of the feeding Molasses should be about 15 - 25 depending upon the fermentation stage
and metabolic state of the yeast. [4]

The combination of Aspen Plus (version 9.0, Aspen Tech, Burlington, MA, United States, 2016)
and RSM tested the steam reforming of ethanol (SRE) on a bimetallic RhPt / CeO2 catalyst.
Firstly, the influence of the Rh–Pt weight ratio (1:0, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, and 0:1) on RhPt / CeO2 SRE
output was measured at a stoichiometric vapor / ethanol molar ratio of 3 between 400 and 700 C.
RSM allowed device modeling and identification with the Rh0.4Pt0.4/CeO2 catalyst of a
maximum of 4.2 mol H2/mol EtOH (700 /mol EtOH). Using Excel the mathematical models were
incorporated into Aspen Plus to simulate a process that involves SRE, H2 purification, and power
generation in a fuel cell (FC). An energy sensitivity study of the procedure was carried out in
Aspen Plus, and new response surfaces were produced using the information obtained. The
response surfaces showed that in steam reforming ethanol, an improvement in H2 output needs
further energy consumption. Increasing the amount of H2 in the fuel cell, however, increases the
overall efficiency of the system. The minimum H2 yield needed for an energetically sustainable
system was reported as 1.2 mol H2/mol EtOH. Based on the results of the incorporation of RSM
models into Aspen Plus, the device utilizing Rh0.4Pt0.4/CeO2 will generate a cumulative net
energy of 742 kJ / mol H2, 40 percent of which could be transformed into electricity in the FC
(297 kJ / mol H2 produced).[2]

Response surface technique has been used to determine optimum concentration of

temperature,time, and the oxalic acid by Pichia stipitis CBS 6054 for simultaneous saccharification
and fermentation (SSF) of corncob particles. Fifteen independent pretreatment variables were
checked with six axial points in a total factorial structure of 23. Temperatures varied from 132 to
180 ° C, 10 to 90 min and 0,01 to 0,038 g / g solid oxalic acid charges. Separate maxima were
observed for enzymatic hemicellulose and saccharification fermentation, with the requirement for
maximal saccharification being considerably more extreme, respectively. The production of
ethanol was more influenced by reaction temperature than by oxalic acid and reaction time over
the ranges tested. The impact of reaction temperature was important in its influence on ethanol
production at a confidence level of 95 per cent. At the 90 per cent stage, oxalic acid and reaction
time is statistically significant. The highest concentration of ethanol (20 g / l) was reported after
48 h, with a volumetric ethanol production rate of 0.42 g l−1 h−1. The yield of ethanol after SSF
with P. stipitis was considerably higher than expected by sequential saccharification and
fermentation of pretreated substrate in the same conditionThis was due to P. stipitis, which secreted
β-glucosidase. Free extracellular expression of β-glucosidase during SSF was 1.30 pNPG U / g
with P. stipitis while saccharification without the yeast was 0.66 pNPG U / g. [3]
Production of ethanol using Zymomonas mobilis strains with methodology of reaction surface
optimized medium (RSM) has been documented. There was a substantial improvement in the yield
of ethanol (0.50 g / g ethanol) which resulted in very low residual sugar and less by-products.
The and five-factor and five-response complete factorial design have shown that glucose and yeast
extract are the main media ingredients controlling ethanol production, accompanied by
concentration of inoculum and ammonium sulfate, with little or no influence of phosphate. The
optimized medium was composed (all in g / l) of glucose 120.4, ammonium sulfate 0.96, potassium
dihydrogen phosphate 0.02, yeast extract 6.5, and magnesium sulfate 0.5.

6 METHODOLOGY
The ethanol production process studied here comprises of fermentation of glucose under the action
of yeast thereby producing liquid ethanol as the main product and gaseous carbon dioxide gas as
the by-product. Feed contains glucose and water as raw materials. Glucose and water at 25°C and
1 atmospheric pressure are mixed in a mixer. The mixed stream is passed through a heater where
it is heated to a temperature of 85°C at 1 atmospheric pressure. The mixture is allowed to cook for
an hour. After complete cooking for an hour, the heater is turned off and enzymes are added at
various temperatures.

Afterwards the mixture is cooled till 30°C. The mixed stream is then passed to the fermenter in
which yeast is added. The fermentation process begins after the addition of yeast to the fermenter
at 30°C. Fermentation leads to the formation of liquid ethanol and gaseous carbon dioxide. This
fermented mixture is transferred to the flash drum wherein liquid ethanol is separated from gaseous
carbon dioxide.

The mathematical equation in terms of actual operating parameters could be utilized in order to
make predictions regarding responsse for the given levels of individual parameter.

7 REFERENCES
[1] Mihul, G., 2019. Simulation of ethanol production process using Aspen plus and optimization
based on response surface methodology. 4th ed. India: Research Journal of Chemistry and
Environment

[2] Cifuentes, Bernay, Manuel Figueredo, and Martha Cobo. "Response surface methodology and aspen
plus integration for the simulation of the catalytic steam reforming of ethanol." Catalysts 7.1 (2017): 15.

[3] Lee, Jae-Won, Rita CLB Rodrigues, and Thomas W. Jeffries. "Simultaneous saccharification and
ethanol fermentation of oxalic acid pretreated corncob assessed with response surface
methodology." Bioresource technology 100.24 (2009): 6307-6311.

[4] Kocher, Gs & Phutela, Rp & Gill, Mis. (2011). Preparation and evaluation of red wine from Punjab
purple variety of grapes. 1. 133-136.