In situ Bioethanol Separation from Fermentation Broth

Bioethanol is an important biofuel. The downstream separation is one of the most energy-intensive processes for bioethanol production, which negatively influenced the process cost and economic competitiveness. To date, a plenty of studies has been committed to establish more efficient bioethanol recovery processes for in situ product recovery (ISPR) from fermentation broth. In this chapter, principles of the ISPR techniques for bioethanol production that emerged in recent years, including gas stripping, vacuum fermentation, adsorption, liquid-liquid extraction, pervaporation, perstraction, and membrane distillation, are introduced in detail, to which the latest progress are summarized. Research trends for multistage ISPR for consolidating the bioethanol separation that is beyond the single-stage processes are also described.