ethanol production

[bagendajerome]

What makes sugar cane juice ferment well most times but sometimes goes slimy when fermenting using wild yeast(self fermentation)?

[CaptainPanic]

Maybe it's described here on Wikipedia:

Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional vinegars and fermentation proceeds slowly over the course of weeks or months. The longer fermentation period allows for the accumulation of a nontoxic slime composed of acetic acid bacteria and soluble cellulose, known as the mother of vinegar.

So, maybe you're making vinegar rather than ethanol. Keep the air out.

 

Why is this in the homework section?

[bagendajerome]

A thousand apologies for posting my question in the homework section. I am a green horn in using ICT.

Thank you for the reply. What bothers me is that the slimy product is un predictable. True the taste of the product is more of vinegar.

I am producing ethanol on a medium scale and I was told that using difference in micibility of ethanol and water in oil will reject more of the water in the beer and allow me to produce close to 99.5% alcohol in one distillation pass thus reducing on energy input.