The Bioethanol Production from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae Immobilized on Sodium Alginate Beads

Bioethanol is an environmentally benign renewable energy commonly obtained from glucose fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The purposes of this study are to investigate the effects of time, temperature, pH, immobilized yeast cell loading, beads reuse during ethanol production through batch fermentation of glucose derived from oil palm empty fruit bunches by S. cerevisiae immobilized on Na-alginate beads and to compare the performance of fermentation using immobilized yeast cells and that of using a free cell system. The results revealed that time, temperature, pH, yeast mass and beads reuse significantly affected the ethanol and final glucose concentrations. As expected, a maximum ethanol concentration was obtained from fermentation using immobilized yeast cells at 30 °C, pH 5, and immobilized yeast cell loading of 0.75 g for 48 hours. However, fermentation with a free cell system at the same conditions resulted in lower ethanol yield. The highest ethanol concentration of 88.125 g/L with a productivity of 1.84 g/L·h was achieved from the second cycle fermentation using of immobilized cells beads. The results suggest that an immobilized cell system exhibits great potential applications for improved ethanol production due to its ability to sustain the stability of cell activity, reduce contamination tendency, and protect yeast cells from any possible inhibitions.

Partial synchronisation of glycolytic oscillations in yeast cell populations

The transition between synchronized and asynchronous behaviour of immobilized yeast cells of the strain Saccharomyces carlsbergensis was investigated by monitoring the autofluorescence of the coenzyme NADH. In populations of intermediate cell densities the individual cells remained oscillatory, whereas on the level of the cell population both a partially synchronized and an asynchronous state were accessible for experimental studies. In the partially synchronized state, the mean oscillatory frequency was larger than that of the cells in the asynchronous state. This suggests that synchronisation occurred due to entrainment by the cells that oscillated more rapidly. This is typical for synchronisation due to phase advancement. Furthermore, the synchronisation of the frequency of the glycolytic oscillations preceded the synchronisation of their phases. However, the cells did not synchronize completely, as the distribution of the oscillatory frequencies only narrowed but did not collapse to a unique frequency. Cells belonging to spatially denser clusters showed a slightly enhanced local synchronisation during the episode of partial synchronisation. Neither the clusters nor a transition from partially synchronized glycolytic oscillations to travelling glycolytic waves did substantially affect the degree of partial synchronisation. Chimera states, i.e., the coexistence of a synchronized and an asynchronous part of the population, could not be found.

A Novel Immobilization Method of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on Fermentation of Nipa Palm Sap for Fuel Grade Bioethanol Production

Nipa palm (Nypa fruticans) spreads abundantly in the mangrove forests of eastern coast of Sumatera Island, Indonesia. Nipa palm sap can be used as a very high-gravity (VHG) substrate for fermentation. In this research, batch fermentation of nipa sap with initial sugar content of 262.713 mg/ml using immobilized Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells was studied. Immobilization of the yeasts in Na-alginate by droplet method and addition of 0.2% v/v Tween 80 and 0.5g/l ergosterol to the immobilized cells were first carried out. Then, the effect of cells weight percentage (5, 10, 15, and 20% w/v) and fermentation time (24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, and 96 hrs) on the bioethanol production were investigated. After, the analysis of bioethanol concentration was investigated using Gas Chromatography. The bioethanol production increased with the fermentation time until reaching a maximum value at all cell weights. Except with the 20% w/v, this peak was followed by a decrease in the bioethanol production at cell weights of 5, 10, and 15% w/v. This phenomenon may be explained by degradation of bioethanol into acetic acid resulting in the decreased concentration at the end of fermentation. The formation of acetic acid was characterized by decreases in the pH values of the fermentation medium. On the contrary, the bioethanol level tended to increase until the end of fermentation with the immobilized yeast cells of 20% w/v. High number of available immobilized yeast cells at the end of fermentation, accumulation of bioethanol produced at earlier times, and no further conversion of bioethanol to acetic acid could be the reasons for this increase. The optimum conditions for bioethanol production were 20% w/v cell weight and 96 hr fermentation time, at bioethanol concentration of 17.57% v/v.

Selective Synthesis of Furfuryl Alcohol from Biomass-Derived Furfural Using Immobilized Yeast Cells

Furfuryl alcohol (FA) is an important building block in polymer, food, and pharmaceutical industries. In this work, we reported the biocatalytic reduction of furfural, one of the top value-added bio-based platform chemicals, to FA by immobilized Meyerozyma guilliermondii SC1103 cells. The biocatalytic process was optimized, and the tolerance of this yeast strain toward toxic furfural was evaluated. It was found that furfural of 200 mM could be reduced smoothly to the desired product FA with the conversion of 98% and the selectivity of >98%, while the FA yield was only approximately 81%. The gap between the substrate conversion and the product yield might partially be attributed to the substantial adsorption of the immobilization material (calcium alginate) toward the desired product, but microbial metabolism of furans (as carbon sources) made a negligible contribution to it. In addition, FA of approximately 156 mM was produced within 7 h in a scale-up reaction, along with the formation of trace 2-furoic acid (1 mM) as the byproduct. The FA productivity was up to 2.9 g/L/h, the highest value ever reported in the biocatalytic synthesis of FA. The crude FA was simply separated from the reaction mixture by organic solvent extraction, with the recovery of 90% and the purity of 88%. FA as high as 266 mM was produced by using a fed-batch strategy within 15.5 h.