Direct Fermentation of D-Xylose to Ethanol by Candida sp. BT001

A yeast strain, BT001, which can directly ferment D-xylose to ethanol was isolated from forest soils, and then identified as Candida sp. Cultural conditions for the optimum ethanol production, along with the effects of aeration on cell growth and ethanol production were investigated. Aeration stimulated the cell growth and the volumetric rate of ethanol production, but decreased the ethanol yield. Optimum temperature and initial pH for the ethanol production were $33{\circ}^C$ and 6.0, respectively. In a shake flask culture, this strain produced 52.3 g ethanol per liter from 12%(w/v) D-xylose after incubation for 96 hours. Ethanol yield was 0.436 g per g D-xylose consumed. This corresponds to 85.8% of theoretical yield. Also, this yeast strain produced ethanol from D-galactose, D-glucose and D-mannose, but not from L-arabinose and L-rhamnose. Among these sugars, D-glucose was the fastest in being converted to ethanol sugars.