Biotechnology Letters, Vol.21, No.5, 401-405, 1999
Distillery waste recycle through membrane filtration in batch alcohol fermentation
A ceramic ultrafiltration membrane was used to recycle distillery wastes in a batch ethanol fermentation process. By reusing the membrane permeate in the saccharification step, almost the same ethanol yield was obtained up to eight recycles and a slight increase in the fermentation by-products was observed. As the number of recycles increased, organic compounds and salts accumulated up to the third recycle but leveled off afterward.