Date of Graduation

12-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Chemical Engineering (MSChE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Chemical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Robert R. Beitle

Committee Member

Edgar Clausen

Second Committee Member

Jin-Woo Kim

Third Committee Member

Christa Hestekin

Keywords

Applied sciences, Ethanol, Fermentation, Hydrolysis

Abstract

Cereal food fines are a leftover by-product from breakfast cereal processing that is typically sold as animal feed or used as a pet food ingredient; however this product could be of greater value as a feedstock for the production of fuel ethanol via fermentation. In order for this material to be fermented it has to be broken down in to simple sugars using hydrolysis. One method of hydrolysis is called dilute-acid hydrolysis, whereby low concentrations of acid are added to the feedstock to facilitate the breaking of chemical bonds. This study investigates the effect of different concentrations of acid to determine optimal conditions for the production of ethanol. It was found that higher concentrations of acid yielded greater production of ethanol and, overall, this particular feedstock showed promise as a future source of fuel ethanol

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