Selective fermentation of pitted dates by S. cerevisiae for the production of concentrated fructose syrups and ethanol

Abstract

About half of worldwide production of dates is unconsumed. Dates contain over 75 % reduced sugars (mostly glucose and fructose with nearly equal amount). Compared to the commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae wild strain, the strains ATCC 36858 and 36859 could produce high concentration fructose syrups. The fructose fractions obtained were 95.9 and 97.4% for ATCC 36858 and 86.5 and 91.4% for ATCC 36859 at 30 and 33°C, respectively. Fructose yields higher than 90% were obtained using ATCC 36858 compared to those obtained using ATCC 36859 which were 87.3 and 66.1% at 30 and 33°C, respectively. The ethanol yield using ATCC 36858 was higher than that using ATCC 36859 by 16 and 9% at 30 and 33°C, respectively. Through this finding, the production of fructose and ethanol from date extract is a promising process. Moreover, the fructose fractions obtained here (about 90%) are much higher than those obtained with the commercial process, i.e. 55 % fructose syrups.