Study of biological material separation in hydrocyclones

Abstract

Hydrocyclones use the same principle of separation of centrifuges, but with no moving parts and no mechanical complexity. For these reasons as well as its versatility in applications, low cost, simple operation, small size, high production efficiencies with short residence times, these devices have been widely found in industry, and even suggested as a practical alternative to solid-liquid separations involving biological material. In the process of fermentation to produce ethanol, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae are recovered and recycled to a new stage of fermentation. This separation process is a major challenge, because the yeasts are small and low density. In this sense, the objective of this work was to investigate the use of hydrocyclones for the separation of yeast from alcoholic fermentation. A factorial experimental design (24) was applied and the results were used to determine empirical mathematical model that describes the reduced separation efficiency as a function of different geometrical and operating variables.