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Immobilization of yeast cells on various supports for ethanol production

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Abstract

An immobilization technique has been developed for a packed bed fermenter which is being considered as one stage of a process for the production of fuel-grade ethanol from sugar solutions. Relatively inexpensive beech wood chips have been successfully used as the support material and relatively high cell loadings of 188 mg DW cells/g DW support have been achieved for a test system of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cultures.

No washout of adsorbed cells occurs below a superficial liquid velocity of 8.9 × 10-2 cm/s which can be increased to 9.7 × 10-2 cm/s by including up to 1% Hercofloc solution in the reactor medium during the immobilization procedure. The immobilization procedure is practically unaffected by pH and temperature in the range 3.5 to 5.0 and 22 °C to 37 °C respectively.

Typical ethanol productivity of 21.8g/l·hr has been obtained with wood-chip-adsorbed cells, which compares well with optimal values of 18 to 32g/l·hr obtained using free-suspension cultures in stirred-tank fermenters with cell recycle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biochemical and Food Engineering Group Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    M. Moo-Young, J. Lamptey & C. W. Robinson

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  1. M. Moo-Young
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  2. J. Lamptey
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  3. C. W. Robinson
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Moo-Young, M., Lamptey, J. & Robinson, C.W. Immobilization of yeast cells on various supports for ethanol production. Biotechnol Lett 2, 541–548 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00134904

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