Simulation of technological proposals for rhamnolipids ORA9 production at pilot scale

Abstract

The rhamnolipids are glycolipid biosurfactants produced by bacteria of the genus Pseudomona and represent an ecological alternative to their counterparts of petrochemical origin because they exhibit low toxicity, high surface activity and are stable under extreme conditions of pH, temperature and salinity.In this work the simulation of two technological proposals for rhamnolipids ORA9 production process at pilot scale was carried out. With the use of SuperPro Designer® software, it was determined that 126 production cycles with a duration of 144 hours each are required to produce 67 kg of rhamnolipids and 11 kg of polyhydroxyalkanoates. The critical point or bottleneck is the fermentation stage with approximately 50 hours of duration. In both variants was possible to increase the plant productivity up to 95 kg of rhamnolipidsand 16 kg of polyhydroxyalkanoatesper year with the use of four fermenters operating in staggered mode. The residuals generated in both proposals do not constitute a risk for the environment.