Abstract
The effect of initial cell concentration on the characteristics of ethanol fermentation was investigated in the batch fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 24858. The characteristics were investigated in the range of 60 to 230 g/l of the initial sugar concentrations and 0.5 to 85 g/l of the initial cell concentrations. When the initial cell concentrations were 27 g/l for 60 g/l of the initial sugar and 85 g/l for 230 g/l, the fermentation time required for the complete consumption of the initial sugar was one hour, respectively. The ethanol productivity increased with the initial cell concentration so that, in the case of 100 g/l of initial sugar, the productivity rose up to 55 g/l/hr at 55 g/l of the initial cell concentration. The specific growth rate decreased according to the increase in the initial biomass concentration and finally became zero at around 25 g/l of the cell concentration regardless of the initial sugar concentration. The specific ethanol production rate was constant as 1.02 g/l/hr up to 150 g/l of the initial sugar. However, the rates decreased sharply with the augmentation of concentration of the initial sugar above 160 g/l. The overall ethanol yield represented a constant value, 0.475 g/g irrespective of the initial cell and sugar concentrations. The overall biomass yietd showed a trend to diminish in values with the biomass and ultimately to reach zero more than 25 g/l of the initial cell concentration.