Continuous ethanol production from sugarcane molasses using a column reactor of immobilized Saccharomyces cerevisiae HAU-1

✍ Scribed by A. Sheoran; B.S. Yadav; P. Nigam; D. Singh

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 71 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0233-111X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1521-4028(199805)38:2<123::aid-jobm123>3.0.co;2-9

✦ Synopsis

A fermentation system for the continuous ethanol production from sucrose and molasses using calcium alginate immobilized Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain HAU-1 has been optimised. Immobilization of active yeast cells (30%, w/v) was accomplished in 1.5% calcium alginate and these yeast-beads were employed for ethanol production in a vertical column reactor. High ethanol productivity was achieved with a medium containing 10%, w/v sucrose at a dilution rate of 0.20 h-1. Alginate beads containing 30-50% yeast cell--mass resulted in high productivity 60.4 g l-1 h-1). Sugarcane molasses containing 15% total sugars was fermented in column reactor to produce 6.0%, v/v ethanol in continuous system. These yields could be improved to 7.0% with overall 11% increase in fermentation--efficiency with the use of acid-clarified sugar cane molasses medium.