Design, Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Simulated Palm Wine Bioreactor Fermenter

Palm wine is often produced from spontaneous fermentation of palm sap obtained during tapping of Elaeis quineensis or Raphia hookeri. While there is high demand for palm wine, its supply is declining. The objective of this research was to design and evaluate performance of a simulated palm wine bioreactor fermenter. Simulated palm wine was produced from sugar cane juice (Saccharum officianarum) and water at ratios of 100:0; 70:30; and 50:50 respectively. The fermenter consists of fermentation, mobilization and retaining vessels. Substrate was regulated to flow at rate of 0.083 to 0.33 l/h at a flow gradient of 1.3:1.2:1.0. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was isolated from palm wine, grown aerobically and pitched at 4.0x10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">8</sup> (CFU/ml) and fermented for 12, 24 and 48h. Total yeast count, total viable lactic acid bacteria and total viable acetic acid bacteria of stimulated palm wine ranged from 1.5×10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> to 2.2×10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>, 1.2×10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sup> to 1.5×10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and 1.1×10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> to 2.2×10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> respectively. Therefore, results obtained from this study showed that simulated palm wine could be successfully produced from a blend of plant juice and water, fermented with saccharomyces cerevisiae using the locally fabricated fermenter.