Improvement of ethanol production from sugarcane molasses through enhanced nutrient supplementation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a yeast cream was utilized for alcoholic fermentation using sugar cane molasses. In the present study, fermentation was optimized for urea and yeast hydrolysate (YH) dosage and the combined effect was evaluated. Total sugars as inverts (TSAI) composition of molasses were -1 determined by HPLC as 39% (m/v). Urea concentrations of 4, 2 and 3 gl showed optimal ethanol -1 production at 30, 35 and 40°C respectively. A YH concentration of 0.5 gl resulted in an ethanol yield of 8.7% (m/v) with a fermentation efficiency of 85.12%. Under optimized conditions (35°C) significant improvements were noticed with ethanol yield of 7.8% (m/v) and efficiency of 76.3%.