Process for the continuous fermentation of aqueous slurries for the production of alcohol and yeast biomass

US4346113A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• UHDE GMBH · DE

Inventors

• Uwe Faust · Idar-Oberstein, DE
• Paul Prave · Bad Soden am Taunus, DE
• Beate Dorsemagen · Frankfurt, DE
• Norbert Hofer · Eppstein, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 18, 1980
• Grant date: Aug 24, 1982
• Expiry date: Sep 18, 2000

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S435/804
• WIPO field: Biotechnology
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A continuous process for the production of alcohol and yeast biomass by reaction in a uniform fermenting mixture of a sugar-bearing, aqueous slurry, starter yeast, yeast nutrients and an oxygen-bearing gas, wherein the yeast is a flocculating, bottom yeast, the portion of the wort which remains after separation of the alcohol-bearing medium therefrom, is recycled to the fermenting mixture, the oxygen-bearing gas is dispersed homogeneously throughout the fermenting mixture, and is introduced to maintain a mean-free oxygen concentration not greater than 1 ppm in the aqueous phase, and the process is controlled to maintain the measurable free sugar concentration in the fermenting mixture at a level which does not exceed 0.1 percent by weight, and to maintain the active yeast concentration in the fermenting mixture between 100 and 110 percent of the specific degree of fermentation.