h Ghanadzadeh - Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Guilan , Rasht, Iran
Gh. Khayati - Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Guilan , Rasht, Iran
z Mirnezami - Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Guilan , Rasht, Iran
m Ghorbanpour - Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Guilan , Rasht, Iran

Cheese whey was used for ethanol fermentation by Kluyveromyces fragilis in an airlift bioreactor. The major goal of this work is determining the effect of aeration rate on the fermentation process and estimating the best set of operating conditions for the process in the airlift bioreactor (7L) and measuring the variation of ethanol, lactose and cell (biomass) concentration with time. experiments at this stage in four cases, the fermentation in normal whey media with 50 gL-1 lactose without aeration rate in the erlenmeyer flask and with aeration rate of 0.1,0.4 and 0.8 vvm in airlift bioreactor were conducted and compared together. The best conditions were the aeration rate of 0.4 vvm with 89.28 percent of ethanol production yeild (alcohol production was 3 (wv-1) percent). It was 90.7 percent at the optimal conditions in concentrated whey media with 100 gL-1 lactose

Fermentation, Ethanol, Cheese whey, Kluyveromyces, Airlift bioreactor