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Distillation of ethanol from Sugar Molasses

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 ISSN 2319 – 2739

Int J Med Biosci. 2013; 2(1): 33 ‐ 35

International Journal of Medicine and Biosciences

www.ijmbonline.com

Distillation of ethanol from Sugar Molasses

1* 2
G. Thamilvanan and R. Senthamil Selvi
1* 2
Department of Education & Department of Biotechnology
Periyar Maniammai University
Vallam 613 403.Thanjavur

Received 15 November 2o12; accepted 25 December 2012; published online 31 January 2013

Research Article Biotechnology

Abstract
Bio‐fuel (Ethanol) was distillated from sugar molasses by utilization of yeast. In this study, sugar molasses was induced to
fermentation process followed by analysis of Brix value, POL percentage, purity, reducing sugar value and simple distillation methods
used to determine the significant amount of ethanol produced from sugar molasses.

Key words: Ethanol, sugar molasses, yeast, fermentation, distillation

Introduction

In current events the petroleum products shortage
is occur various factors and also increase the cost of
product. So, we pushed to search the alternate source,
that the way we establish our research towards
production of bio‐fuel (ethanol). It is an eco‐friendly and
recovers our fuel shortage. Combustion of ethanol
results in relatively low emission of volatile organic
compounds, carbon di oxide and nitrogen oxides. The
emission and toxicity of ethanol are lower than those of
fossil fuels such as petroleum, diesel etc., [1]. Ethanol can
be used directly as a fuel, but most for often it is blended
with gasoline to yield gasohol [2]. Intense research has
been carried out for obtaining efficient fermentative
organisms, low cost fermentation, substrates, and
optimal environmental condition for fermentation to
occur [3]. Even though the fermentative process for
ethanol production is well known, the production costs
are still the key impediment for the wide use of ethanol
as fuel. Therefore, the development of fermentation
processes using economical carbon sources is important
for the ethanol production in a commercial scale [4].
Production of sugar first originated in the Indian
sub‐continent. Leading countries of the world which
produce sugar from canestalk are cube, mexico, Hawaii,
and Brazil. In india mostly sugar was produced from
sugar cane in the world. Sugar manufacturing process
involves many chemical engineering units. Operations
viz., cane preparation and juice extraction, heat transfer,
sedimentation, filteration, evaporation and
crystallization. A typical raw cane sugar contains sucrose
(97.5%), reducing sugar (0.86%) and other organic
compounds ash and water. Sugar cane contains about 11
to 15% sucrose out of which only 8 to 11% crystalizable.
The remaining sucrose goes into by product like
reducing sugar and sugar molasses. The fermentation of
molasses from the action of yeast. It carried out by tow
process ie. Fermentation and distillation. Hence this
research an attempt has been optimize by various
experimental results.
Invertase
C12H22O11 + H2O C6H12O6 + C6H12O6

*Corresponding Author
E‐mail: mgthamilvanan@gmail.com Zymase
C6H12O6 C2H2OH + CH3COOH+2CO2
©Copyright 2012, International Journal of Medicine and Biosciences
All Rights Reserved +2C3H8O8
 G. Thamilvanan & R. Senthamil Selvi / Int J Med Biosci. 2013; 2(1): 33 ‐ 35 34

Materials and Methods

Mix 70 Ml of molasses with 70Ml of water in a S. No Pol Percentage Brix Purity

250Ml Erlenmeyer flask. Add about 0.5g of yeast to the
1 26.4 90.64 29.1262
flask and stir gently until everything is well mixed. Keep
this reaction for our week while the fermentation 2 25.8 89.42 28.8526
reaction occur. A simple distillation coumn was
prepared, the simple distillation done fairly rapidly (one 3 26.8 91.76 29.2066
drop per second ) and the alcohol fraction should be
4 26.0 85.76 30.31
collected, until just below the boiling point of water. The
ethanol was distilled slowly; recording the temperature 5 26.8 89.42 89.97
range for each fraction collected, stopping collection at
970C [5]. Analysis of final molasses like POL percentage, 6 26.2 91.06 28.77
Brix and purity, estimation of reducing sugar and total
7 26.6 91.76 28.98
reducing sugar [6].

Yeast
Table. I. shows the POL percentage, Brix and purity of
Yeasts are highly susceptible to ethanol inhibition, molasses
concentrations of 1‐2% (W/V) are sufficient to retard
microbial growth and at 10% (W/V) alcohol, the growth
S. No Mola Reducing Total Etha‐ Etha‐
rate of the organism is nearly halted. ‐sses sugar in reducing nol nol
in g sugar in for
Saccharomyces cerevisiae g Ml 100
Ml
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Ascomycota 1 0.23 0.05 0.06 0.057 5.7
Sub Phylum: Saccharomycolina 2 0.31 0.06 0.19 0.1216 12.1
Class: Saccharomycetes 3 0.43 0.07 0.21 0.1344 13.11
4 0.52 0.08 0.30 0.192 19.2
Order: Saccharomycetales 5 0.61 0.09 0.42 0.268 26.88
Family: Saccharomycetaceae 8
Genus: Saccharomyces 6 0.70 0.10 0.50 0.32 32.0
Species: S. cerevisiae 7 0.82 0.23 0.62 0.396 39.68
8
Binominal name: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
8 0.91 0.21 0.71 0.454 45.44
4
Results
Tabel. 2. Shows the reducing sugar quantity and yield of
To find the purity of sample using POL percentage ethanol
and Brix value. The Brix value identify by Schmitz table.
It was observed that the samples have equal purity. In Discussion
sugar factories they have fixed standard norms of purity
of final molasses as 30. From the above samples it was When the vapor pressure of a liquid is equal to the
inferred that the loss of sugar in final molasses is well atmospheric pressure. This is determined using Raoult’s
within the standard norm. According to Gay‐Lussac Law for an ideal gas. Distillation take advantage of this
equation , 1g of glucose 0.64Ml of ethanol. behavior in a mix of solutions to separate two liquids [5].
Fermentation of starch from grain is somewhat more
complex than fermentation of sugars because starch
must first be converted to sugar than to ethanol [7]. That
the way graph 1 shows the ethanol quantity in increasing
order based on the reducing sugar quantity. Among the
yeast, S. cerevisiae still remains the prime species for
 G. Thamilvanan & R. Senthamil Selvi / Int J Med Biosci. 2013; 2(1): 33 ‐ 35
ethanol production. In industry, the ethanol yield from
S. cerevisiae is calculated based on the total sugar fed
intothe fermentation system [8‐10].
Previously, ethanol tolerance was thought to be
independent of the nutritional conditions but now it is
known that there is possibility to increase ethanol yield
and survival of yeast at high concentrations of ethanol by
altering nutritional conditions [11]. There are several
reports on fermentation of molasses [12‐15]. In present
study report that while increase the reducing sugar the
ethanol production also increase.
Graph I
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