Researchers from Unicamp developed a potentially innovative system capable of solving an environmental challenge arising from the bioethanol production process in sugar-energy plants. The residue resulting from this process, known as fusel oil and most of which is discarded by industries, can now be completely transformed into a valuable and marketable by-product: isoamyl alcohol.
This technology was licensed, with the support of the Innovation Agency Innovates Unicamp, for the company Newpro Engenharia and has the potential to be applied in different industrial sectors.
Currently, industries already transform fusel oil into isoamyl alcohol, but in minimal quantities (the rest of the material is destined for burning). The big problem with this model lies in the fact that it is not known how this polluting waste is being disposed of by industries, which raises environmental concerns.
and agreement with Eduardo Augusto Caldas Batista, professor at the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA) from Unicamp and one of the inventors of protected technology, the fermented must from sugar cane juice contains not only water and ethanol, but also, in smaller quantities, compounds that interfere with the purification of ethanol. Some of these minor compounds are higher alcohols, which need to be removed during the distillation process in order not to compromise the desired purity of ethanol. This material constitutes the residue known as fusel oil, a viscous liquid, yellow in color and with an unpleasant smell that has little added value, both for commercialization and for direct use.
“The waste generated can be transformed into a product with high added value and interesting for other industries, which is isoamyl alcohol. Furthermore, the system recovers the ethanol solubilized in the fusel oil and which would also be discarded, increasing ethanol production, even if in low quantities”, says the researcher.
The benefits of this integrated system cover several sectors involved in the process. Sugar-energy plants, for example, will be able to sell the concentrated by-product in the form of isoamyl alcohol at an added value significantly higher than that of fusel oil. Furthermore, they will be able to recover the ethanol lost in this waste, maximizing their production, as the professor explained. Industries purchasing the by-product will also benefit from obtaining quality raw material. All this without mentioning the main positive highlight of the innovation, the reduction of the impact on the environment by avoiding the contamination of areas when this waste is inappropriately disposed of.
Read the full article published on the Inova Unicamp website.
