OPTIMISATION AND DEBOTTLENECKING OF MANUFACTURING

SODIUM GLUCONATE FROM SEAWEED

G.Hardiyanti, M.C.Puspita, Nurhayati, A.Rahmi, T.S.Utami, and M.Gozan

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus Depok 16424,
Indonesia

E-mail: ginasesha21@gmail.com

Abstract

Sodium gluconate is the sodium salt of gluconic acid. Its form is white to tan crystalline powder, with noncorrosive and non-toxic characteristic. The main reactions of manufacturing sodium gluconate from seaweed are
hydrolysis starch to generate glucose and fermentation glucose with Aspergillus niger. Sodium gluconate is a
chemical compound that is very beneficial in concrete admixtures (cement) industry, food, and pharmaceutical
industry. In Indonesia, the demand of sodium gluconate is quite high and will be increase every year,
unfortunately the demand cannot be fulfilled. The optimization of production process is needed to increase the
capacity of sodium gluconate production. In this work, the base case and alternative for optimizing and
debottlenecking a sodium gluconate production process was modelled in a commercial batch simulation
software, i.e. SuperPro Designer v9.0, with the aim to identify an economically viable production scheme. Two
alternatives were proposed for process debottlenecking due to the increase of the product demand in the market.
After analyzing both alternatives with economic analysis, the second alternative is the best debottlenecking
alternative to increase production capacity.
Keywords: optimization, debottlenecking. Sodium gluconate, seaweed
Ibc.secret@gmail.com
Simulasibiop2015@gmail.com
A1, portrait, 30 april 12 siang.