Increasing Ethanol Productivity by Treatment of Molasses

Abstract

Ethanol is known as ethyl alcohol or green alcohol. It is a flammable, colorless and mildly toxic chemical compound with a distinctive perfume like odor. Ethanol is one of the most important renewable fuels that contribute to the reduction of negative environmental impacts generated by the excessive utilization of fossil fuels. The study aims to determine the effect of treatment of molasses in ethanol industry in terms of increased production. The verification of the results was done through the work of two experiments for the production of ethanol.The first experiment using heating for processing molasses and the second experiment by adding the hodage to the molasses thereafter, the percentage of ethanol production. In addition, the two experiments have been implemented by controlling the values of Brix, temperature and chemical hodage in order to determine the optimum and best values that would give a higher and better productivity of ethanol. The Results showed that the optimum Brix was 20, where it gave an ethanol production rate of 7% at 70°C, when using hodage to treat molasses by 6%, ethanol production reached 7.5%. The study recommends treating the molasses and setting the brix at 20 and the heating temperature 70°C, it is also recommended to treat molasses (adding the hodage to the mash).