New Online Monitoring Approaches to Describe and Understand the Kinetics of Acetaldehyde Concentration during Wine Alcoholic Fermentation: Access to Production Balances

Abstract

The compound acetaldehyde has complex synthesis kinetics since it accumulates during the growth phase and is consumed by yeast during the stationary phase, as well as evaporating (low boiling point) throughout the process. One recurrent question about this molecule is: can temperature both increase and decrease the consumption of the molecule by yeast or does it only promote its evaporation? Therefore, the main objective of this study was to describe and analyze the evolution of acetaldehyde and shed light on the effect of temperature, the main parameter that impacts fermentation kinetics and the dynamics of acetaldehyde synthesis. Thanks to new online monitoring approaches, anisothermal temperature management and associated mathematical methods, complete acetaldehyde production balances during fermentation made it possible to dissociate biological consumption from physical evaporation. From a biological point of view, the high fermentation temperatures led to important production of acetaldehyde at the end of the growth phase but also allowed better consumption of the molecule by yeast. Physical evaporation was more important at high temperatures, reinforcing the final decrease in acetaldehyde concentration. Thanks to the use of production balances, it was possible to determine that the decrease in acetaldehyde concentration during the stationary phase was mainly due to yeast consumption, which was explained by the metabolic links found between acetaldehyde and markers of metabolism, such as organic acids.