Comparison of Ethanol Fermentation Properties between Laboratorial and Industrial Yeast Strains using Cassava Hydrolysate

Abstract

In order to investigate the ethanol fermentation properties of alcohol yeasts a laboratorial strain (CEN.PK2-1D) and two industrial alcohol yeasts (JHS100 and JHS200) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were cultured in a pure YP medium with 300 g/L glucose and cassava hydrolysate. Spot assay and cell viability tests showed that both the JHS100 and JHS200 strains exhibited higher ethanol tolerance than the CEN.PK2-1D strain. The JHS100 strain demonstrated the highest cell growth, glucose consumption and ethanol production. In particular, an anaerobic batch fermentation of the JHS100 strain using cassava hydrolysate with 250 g/L glucose resulted in a 106.1 g/L ethanol concentration, 0.42 g/g ethanol yield and 3.15 g/L-hr ethanol productivity, which were 53%, 13%, 53% higher than the corresponding values for the CEN.PK2-1D strain. By changing the pure YP medium to cassava hydrolysate, 19% and 17% decreases in ethanol yield and productivity for the CEN.PK2-1D strain were observed, whereas the cultures of the JHS100 and JHS200 stains showed similar ethanol productivities and only an 8% decrease in ethanol yield. Furthermore, the JHS100 and JHS200 stains produced lower levels of glycerol and acetate byproducts than the CEN.PK2-1D strain. Consequently, the outstanding ethanol fermentation performance of the industrial strains might be owing to rapid cell growth, high ethanol tolerance, low nitrogen requirements and the low formation of by-products.