Reis Silva S, Ferreira da Costa E, Sarrouh B, Oliveira Souza da Costa A. Exergetic analysis and optimization of process variables in xylitol production: Maximizing efficiency and sustainability in biotechnological processes.
BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY 2024;
391:129910. [PMID:
37884097 DOI:
10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129910]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2023] [Revised: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 10/19/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
This study presents an exergetic analysis of xylitol fermentative production from hemicellulose hydrolysate, aiming to optimize operational conditions in a fluidized bed bioreactor. The aerobic fermentation conditions evaluated in this study (gas flow rate - x1, hydrolysate concentration factor - x2, and recirculation flow rate - x3) were optimized using various exergetic parameters and xylitol yield as objective functions. Four objective functions were defined for the mono-objective optimization process: rational exergetic efficiency, normalized destroyed exergy, thermodynamic sustainability index, and xylitol yield factor. The results reveal that the optimization problem involves conflicting objectives when considering both yield-based and exergy-based approaches. Thus, the bioreactor's performance was formulated as a multi-objective problem, where the yield factor and thermodynamic sustainability index were simultaneously maximized. For the multi-objective optimization, the ideal operational variable ranges were found to be: 594 ≤x1≤ 619 mL/min, x2= 7 e 37 ≤x3≤ 57 L/h.
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