Abstract
BackgroundThe potassium dichromate oxidation method used in determination of alcohols in fermentation has two major disadvantages. This method cannot be used to determine alcohols in raw fermentation broth samples, which often contain various reducing sugars. The method is not environment friendly due to the carcinogenicity of Cr (VI) used.ResultsA new method for determination of reducing sugars and total alcohols in raw fermentation broths was developed. The fermentation broth was pretreated to remove proteins, polysaccharides, glycerol and organic acids. The colorimetric change from both total alcohols and reducing sugars by potassium permanganate oxidation was measured. The portion of colorimetric change from oxidation of reducing sugars was determined by DNS test and subtracted. The remaining portion of colorimetric change was then used to calculate the total alcohol concentration in the sample.ConclusionsUsing this method, total alcohol concentration can be easily and accurately determined in both distilled samples and raw fermentation broth samples. It is fast and environmental friendly.
Highlights
The potassium dichromate oxidation method used in determination of alcohols in fermentation has two major disadvantages
Several methods have been used in determination of ethanol concentration, including gas chromatographic methods [4,5,6], gas chromatography-mass spectrometry [7], gas chromatography combustion isotope ratio mass spectrometry [8], and liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometry [9, 10]
The linearity and detection limit of ethanol by method of potassium permanganate oxidization Various concentrations of ethanol (2-fold serial dilutions from 2 mL L-1 to 1.96 μL L-1) were prepared to estabolish the standard curve of A526 increase by the potassium permanganate treatment
Summary
The potassium dichromate oxidation method used in determination of alcohols in fermentation has two major disadvantages. This method cannot be used to determine alcohols in raw fermentation broth samples, which often contain various reducing sugars. Total alcohols and reducing sugar concentrations are two important parameters in fermentation of wine, beer and fuel ethanol [1,2,3]. It provides information on optimization and regulation of the fermentation process to increase the yield and quality of the products. The gas or liquid chromatographic methods require expensive instruments, and are time-consuming, so they cannot be widely used to closely monitor the fermentation process
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