The study developed a Zero Fossil Fuel Distiller (ZFFD) to address environmental issues on bioethanol production from Nipa Sap. The Mariano Marcos State University had developed a distiller that can produce 95% fuel grade bioethanol powered by fuelwood. While burning woods provides a good heat source, this activity’s byproducts are not good for the environment. The scarcity of fuelwood will also be a problem for bulk production. Hence, the development of a ZFFD integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for easy monitoring, control, and configuration. A 10 kWp Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic System with battery backup was designed to power a 150 L capacity distiller. The power system is capable of storing excess harnessed energy to a battery and a grid for future use, as well as managing and monitoring the inflow and outflow of electricity on-site or remotely via IoT. Results show an average harnessed energy of 47.11 kWh to supply a 33.99 kWh required energy to distill 133 L of feedstock daily. The excess energy of 13.12 kWh is stored in the grid for future use. The developed ZFFD shows an improved regulation of the Kettle temperature, Column temperature, and Cooling System water flow.

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Sugar sap from Nipa (Nypa fruiticans) palm is one of the promising sustainable feedstocks for ethanol production. There are different stages and processes needed for the sap to produce ethanol particularly: collection, fermentation, and distillation. In order to produce high ethanol concentration and yield, each stage or process needs to be optimized and improved as such, this study optimized the flow rate and temperature of the cooling system of a 10 L full electric Reflux distiller for the production of a fuel grade (95%) bioethanol from nipa sap. The optimal power density for the 10 L full electric reflux distiller was also determined. Optimizing these parameters improved the concentration of the ethanol, ethanol yield and also decreased the operational cost of the 10 L full electric reflux distiller. First step was to determine the power density required for the 10 L Lab-Scale Distiller through experiment using different power density. After identifying the power density, multiple trials were performed with 2 protocols being the continuous method and recirculating method of the cooling system. Results showed that a flow rate of 0.77 L/min, a 27 °C cooling liquid temperature and a 100W/m3 power density were obtained. An increase of 154.2% in volume of consistent 95% concentration yield was observed. Also, there was a significant increase in the yield. Continuous method was faster by an average of 26 minutes compared to the recirculating method.

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