A qualitative outline to industrialize alcohol production by catalytic multistage fixed bed tower (MFBT) bioreactor

Volatiles formation from grape must fermentation using a cryophilic and thermotolerant yeast

Grape must fermentation performance and volatiles formation by simultaneously cryophilic and thermotolerant yeast (strain AXAZ-1), isolated from grapes in Greece, was evaluated in a wide temperature range (5-40°C). Yeast strain was immobilized on brewer's spent grains (BSG) and the formed biocatalyst was introduced into a Multi-Stage Fixed Bed Tower (MFBT) bioreactor. Almost complete sugar utilization from the aforementioned biocatalyst was observed in a wide temperature spectrum, ranging from 5 °C to 37 °C, while at 40 °C residual sugar was up to 29 g/l. Time to complete fermentation with the immobilized yeast ranged from 290 h at 5 °C and 120 h at 40 °C to 25 h at 33 °C. The daily ethanol productivity reached maximum (88.6 g/l) and minimum (5.6 g/l) levels at 33 °C and 5 °C, respectively. The aroma-related compounds' profiles of immobilized cells at different fermentation temperatures were evaluated by using solid phase microextraction (SPME) gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Must fermentation resulted in a high-quality fermentation product due to the low concentrations of higher and amyl alcohols at all temperatures tested. AXAZ-1 is a very promising strain for quality wine production, as it is capable of performing fermentations of high ethanol concentration and productivities in both low and high temperatures.

Comparative study of spent grains and delignified spent grains as yeast supports for alcohol production from molasses

Fresh, defrosted and delignified brewer's spent grains (BSG) were used as yeast supports for alcoholic fermentation of molasses. Glucose solution (12%) with and without nutrients was used for cell immobilization on fresh BSG, without nutrients for cell immobilization on defrosted and with nutrients for cell immobilization on delignified BSG. Repeated fermentation batches were performed by the immobilized biocatalysts in molasses of 7, 10 and 12 initial Baume density without additional nutrients at 30 and 20 degrees C. Defrosted BSG immobilized biocatalyst was used only for repeated fermentation batches of 7 initial Baume density of molasses without nutrients at 30 and 20 degrees C. After immobilization, the immobilized microorganism population was at 10(9) cells/g support for all immobilized biocatalysts. Fresh BSG immobilized biocatalyst without additional nutrients for yeast immobilization resulted in higher fermentation rates, lower final Baume densities and higher ethanol productivities in molasses fermentation at 7, 10 and 12 initial degrees Be densities than the other above biocatalysts. Adaptation of defrosted BSG immobilized biocatalyst in the molasses fermentation system was observed from batch to batch approaching kinetic parameters reported in fresh BSG immobilized biocatalyst. The results of this study concerning the use of fresh or defrosted BSG as yeast supports could be promising for scale-up operation.