Ethanol production by co-fermentation of hexose and pentose from food wastes using Saccharomyces coreanus and Pichia stipitis

Abstract

To improve the conversion rate of a saccharification liquid from food wastes containing pentoses and hexoses into bioethanol, after selecting Saccharomyces coreanus and Pichia stipitis, the respective fermentation and co-fermentation properties were investigated. In the fermentation using S. coreanus, the result under anaerobic condition was better than under aerobic conditions. In the anaerobic fermentation, the concentration of the reducing sugar and glucose remaining after 24 hrs was 9.09 and 1.88 g/L, respectively, with 40.59 g/L of ethanol produced; the ethanol productivity was 1.69 g/L-h. Also, even with the fermentation using P. stipitis, the reducing sugars and glucose were rapidly reduced, with a marked production of ethanol, but the ethanol produced was lower than those under anaerobic and aerobic conditions with the use of S. coreanus. Therefore, for the production of a high concentration of bioethanol from food wastes, ethanol fermentation was induced using S. coreanus until the middle of the fermentation, with P. stipitis used during the latter stage of the fermentation, where the circumstance favored its use, and thus, the carbon source not converted by S. coreanus was later converted to ethanol. As a result, both ethanol production of 48.63 g/L and productivity of 2.03 g/L-h increased over those of the anaerobic fermentation using S. coreanus.