Process simulation of bioethanol production from brown algae

Steady state ethanol production from brown algae (Saccharina japonica) based on 100,000 ton/year dry feed was simulated using Aspen Plus V7.3 software. Different process units including saccharification, fermentation and purification were modeled based on experimental works obtained from literature. Acid thermal hydrolysis using H2SO4 and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) were used and modeled in this simulation. Distillation columns along with molecular sieves were used to recover ethanol from the raw fermentation broth to produce 99.5% ethanol. This simulation is the first attempt in literature to evaluate large-scale production of ethanol from macroalgae and allows its economic analysis.