Investigation of Effective Immobilization Method for Ethanol Producing E. coli Strain

Abstract

There is a growing interest to find alternative cheap carbon sources for bioethanol production. Whey powder is a by-product of cheese industry with high lactose content. Immobilization of bacteria is an effective method for enhancing production of their metabolites including bioethanol. In this work, a new and effective immobilization method for bioethanol production from whey powder as a cheap/renewable carbon source was investigated. For this, different immobilization methods were evaluated to avoid disruption of bead structures during ethanol fermentation. The best results were obtained when sodium alginate was sterilized under the UV lamp instead of heating for immobilization, and the fermentation media was supplemented with CaCl2 as a stability factor. In addition, the beads were successfully reused in at least three 48 h batch fermentations for ethanol production