Increasing Efficiency of Sugar Cane Molasses Fermentation

Abstract

This research studied about the factors that related to the Fed-Batch Fermentation process. It cover the process of adding the molasses solution into 2 steps with Saccharomyces cerevisiae microorganisms to enhance the fermentation of molasses from sugar cane. This can process by the design of experiment technique. According to the producing white spirit process from sugar cane molasses in the industrial level, it needs to produce high concentrated alcohol content which using the raw materials wisely and consider to the smell and taste as important. Currently, the case study factory has received molasses with concentrations in the range of 48 - 53 %w/w from multiple sources with different internal components and fermented at an average sugar concentration of 20.99 %w/v and an average fermentation efficiency of 79.96 %. Based on the previous studies combine with the fish bone diagram and 4M1E principles, it can analyze the root causes of problems affecting the fermentation efficiency of sugar cane molasses by those who have experience and expertise in the fermentation of molasses. It was found that there were three factors affecting the fermentation efficiency of sugar cane molasses: Total Reducing Sugar (%w/w), fermentation sugar concentration (%w/v) and temperature inside the tank (°C). The designing experiments using the Response Surface Design method in Box-Behnken Design to determine the optimum state of the three factors. The results showed that the fermentation efficiency of molasses from sugar cane increased, it was found that the internal composition of the molasses at 50 %w/w, the fermentation sugar concentration of 16 %w/v and the temperature inside the fermentation tank 33 °C resulted. The efficiency of fermentation of molasses from sugar cane increased was 85.74%.