Electroflocculation is reported as a promising harvesting technique to improve cost effectiveness within the downstream process.
Hence, a reduction of energy demand in the downstream process is desirable.
However, this improvement must be evaluated in the context of various implications for the downstream process.
In order to conduct further improvements, modelling of the downstream process was performed.
This novel strategy causes particular interactions between the downstream process, the reactor and the catalyst design.
In this particular case, the downstream process steps for second-generation bioethanol, from distillation to the end product, are highlighted.
Data obtained from the downstream process simulation shows that the distillation section accounts for 60% of the overall energy demand.
However, we could demonstrate that the downstream process autolysis has an influence on E. coli binding (P < 0.001).
In addition, secretory BLIP can be recovered directly from the culture supernatant, facilitating the downstream process for obtaining BLIP.
Therefore, the extracellular secretion must be increased in order to simplify the downstream process and to reduce the economic cost.
To meet this target as fast as possible, the downstream process, the reactor and the catalyst are designed simultaneously.
