Characterization and continuous production of ethanol using immobilized yeast cells

Abstract

In this study, characterization of the immobilized yeast cells for ethanol production by varying the initial sugar and yeast cell concentration was performed. The results have indicated that the effective fermentation can be achieved using 1% of the immobilized yeast cells with 10-12% of initial total reducing sugar concentration. The role of plant and fungal based chemicals as activators were studied and the studies indicated that Chitin and Rhizopus Oryza biomass has shown signifi cant effects of increase in fermentation rate (47% and 23.94%) in free and immobilized cell-activator systems respectively. Continuous ethanol production studies with immobilized yeast cells suggested that the productivity can be improved up to 100% by reducing retention time. Also, these studies confi rmed the reusability of beads for up to 16 days without losing activity.