Continuous ethanol production from sugar beet thick juice by Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized onto sugar beet pulp

Abstract

The immobilization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae onto sugar beet pulp (SBP) by natural adhesion is an efficient and low-cost method for retaining high biocatalyst density in the ethanol fermentation system. In the present study, cells of S. cerevisiae 163, were immobilized by natural adhesion onto SBP. The retention of immobilized cells attained the level of about 1.7×10 11 cells/gram of dry SBP. Continuous ethanol production from sugar beet thick juice (TJ) was performed in a cylinder glass bioreactor at a temperature of 30°C and pH 5 during a 27-day period. The stability of the fermentation process at dilution rate (D) of 0.025 h-1 and 0.05 h-1 was evaluated. The yeast-SBP system was shown to be stable for over a 15-day period at the dilution rate of 0.025 h-1, while the dilution rate of 0.05 h-1 was found to be unsuitable due to the intensive yeast leaching from the support. At D of 0.025 h-1 the maximum sugar utilization (Su), ethanol concentration (P), volumetric ethanol productivity (Qp), ethanol yield (Yp/s) and fermentation efficiency were 97.1%, 54.7 g/l, 2.3 g/lh, 0.498 g/g and 97.6%, respectively.