Modelagem e simulação de fermentação alcoólica a partir de sorgo sacarino

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of kinetic models applied to the alcoholic fermentation of sweet sorghum must for bioethanol production. Based on experimental data available in the literature, the parameters of the Andrews and Levenspiel and Andrews and Noack models were estimated, considering the variations in the concentration of biomass, Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell biomass, and etanol over time. Simulations were performed using OpenModelica® software, which is a modeling and differential equation solving environment, allowing comparison of the curves generated by the models with the experimental profiles. The results indicated that the Andrews and Levenspiel model better describes cell growth and glucose consumption, showing good agreement with the exponential growth phase and with the partial substrate depletion behavior. On the other hand, the Andrews and Noack model showed a greater ability to represent ethanol formation, more adequately reproducing the initial increase in product concentration and the subsequent plateau observed experimentally. The joint analysis of the adjustments suggests that combining different formulations may be a useful strategy for simulation and optimization studies of sweet sorghum fermentation, reinforcing the potential of this raw material as an alternative for diversifying the biofuel matrix.