Diseño del proceso de producción de cerveza con cannabidiol a escala piloto

Abstract

Beer, being one of humanity's oldest biotechnological products, has a certain background that constitutes a product of interest from a technological and industrial point of view. The objective of this work was to design a process for the production of beer with cannabidiol on a pilot scale, for which a 5-liter batch was prepared on a laboratory scale. Data was collected that, through material and energy balances, allowed scaling the process and designing the block diagram and process flow (BFD and PFD), in addition to the conceptual design of a 50-liter capacity fermenter. The operating conditions of the bioreactor determined the optimum pH with a range between 5 to 6 and a constant temperature of 20 degrees Celsius to achieve high fermentation without agitation or dissolved oxygen. In addition, the physicochemical and microbiological characterization showed normal values according to the Ecuadorian Institute for Standardization (INEN) and the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) for brewing, with the exception of total acidity and the presence of aerobic mesophiles. On the other hand, the scaling factor was calculated through the material and energy balances with a value of 10.35 to scale all the process streams to a pilot scale. Additionally, a helical coil and a flat plate turbine agitator were designed according to the similarity criteria for the fermenter. Finally, the process was presented in BFD and PFD diagrams.