Optimizing medium for producing ethanol from industrial crop Jerusalem artichoke by one-step fermentation and recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

In order to obtain a high ethanol yield from the Jerusalem artichoke raw extract and reduce the fermentation cost, we have engineered a new recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain that could produce ex-inulinase. The response surface methodology based on Plackett–Burman and Box–Behnken design was used to optimize the medium for the ethanol production from the Jerusalem artichoke raw extracts by the recombinant strain. In the first optimization step, Plackett–Burman design was employed to select significant factors, including concentrations of yeast extract, inoculum, and MgSO4·7H2O. In the second step, the steepest ascent experiment was carried out to determine the center point with the three significant factors; the selected combinations were further optimized using the Box–Behnken design. The maximum ethanol production rate was predicted at 91.1 g/l, which was based on a medium consisting of yeast extract 9.24 g/l, inoculum 39.8 ml/l, and MgSO4·7H2O 0.45 g/l. In the validating experiment, the ethanol fermentation rate reached 102.1 g/l, closely matching the predicted rate.