Determination, Modeling and Optimization of Distillation Equilibrium of Fermented Palm Wine

This research work was done using palm wine as a source of fermentable sugar. Equal sample of the palm wine was fermented aerobically by baker's yeast under standard atmospheric condition for consecutive series of 1 to 15 days. Testing and Distillation of liquor was done on each day to determine the amount of fatty acid, PH, sugar, specific gravity and vitamin C, with time during fermentation on one hand and the equilibrium mole fraction relationship for ethanol and water on the other hand. Models were developed to predict the reproduction of the experimental values into future, and, on validationgave R 2 which ranges from 0.9901 to 0.9980. On optimization it was revealed that in 1.49 days, 0.1067 percentage fatty acid was produced. With 1.44 percentage mole fraction of ethanol, 3.398 refractive index of palm wine was obtained. It also showed that a minimum of 0.07305 refractive index of distillate per mole fraction of more volatile component was made in just 0.499 percentage mole fraction and a minimum of 0.1956 mole fraction of gaseous ethanol per mole fraction of more volatile component was obtained. The results and models can be applied in the distillation work of this kind for prediction and reproduction of experimental values.