• KSBB Journal
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.11-14
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• 1989

A study on the continuous fermentation with cell recycle by a tower fermentor to produce ethanol has been carried out. ethanol fermentation was conducted with flocculating yeast strain, Saccharomyces cerevisiae TS4, to compare the ethanol productivity with conventional continuous process. Employing a 15% glucose feed, a cell density of 50 g/l was obtaind. The ethanol productivity of the cell recycle system was found to be 26.5g EtOH/1-hr, which was nearly 7.5 times higher than the conventional continuous process without cell recycle. A cell recycle ratio of 7 to 8 resulted in the highest ethanol productivity and cell concentration. Thus the cell recycle ratio was found to be a key factor in controlling the production of clarified overflow liquid. An aeration rate above 3.8 $\times$ 10-3 VVM seemed to decrease the ethanol productivity. The continuous fermentation with cell recycle was successfully used in the separation of cells from fermentation broth with enhancement of mixing in the tower fermentor.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.155-162
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• 1982

A cell-recycled continuous fermentation process was studied to produce ethanol from molasses using Sacchoromyces uvarum ATCC26602 at 35 $^{\circ}C$. The fermentation system was divided into two stages in order to reduce the inhibitions of ethanol and substrate for cell growth and fermentation rate. The first reactor was aerated at the rate of 0.12 vvm whilst the second was kept anaerobic. In medium composition studies, it was revealed that inorganic nutrient supplement to the diluted molasses with 14% fermentable sugar was not needed for the fermentation, however, phosphate limitation was observed when cell propagation was contemplated. By using the cell-recycled continuous fermentation system, 14.5 hour was required to produce 8.4-9.0% (v/v) of ethanol from diluted molasses containing 14% of fermentable sugar. The ethanol productivity was 6.2g/$\ell$hr with the yield of 88.1-94.4% to the theoretical value.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.717-722
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• 1995

Using a flocculating Saccharomyes cerevisiae CA-1, an air-lift reactor equipped with a modified settler was used for ethanol fermentation. The effects of conditions such as aeration rate, initial glucose concentration, and dilution rate were studied using the air-lift reactor. In batch fermentation, optimum aeration rate was 0.5 vvm. In continuous fermentation, aeration rate and initial pH were fixed 0.5 vvm and 4.5, substrate concentration and dillution rate were changed 10-15% and 0.1-1.3. The maximum ethanol productivity was shown to be 20.4 g/l$\cdot $h in 10% glucose and 0.7 h$^{-1}$ dilution rate., and optimum operation condition considering the ethanol productivity and glucose utilization ratio was 0.5 h$^{-1}$ dilution rate in 10% glucose concentration.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.1227-1234
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• 2020

In this study, yeast cell immobilization was carried out in a packed bed reactor (PBR) to investigate the effects of the volumetric capacity of carriers as well as the different fermentation modes on fuel ethanol production. An optimal volumetric capacity of 10 g/l was found to obtain a high cell concentration. The productivity of immobilized cell fermentation was 16% higher than that of suspended-cell fermentation in batch and it reached a higher value of 4.28 g/l/h in repeated batches. Additionally, using this method, the ethanol yield (95.88%) was found to be higher than that of other tested methods due to low concentrations of residual sugars and free cells. Continuous ethanol production using four bioreactors showed a higher productivity (9.57 g/l/h) and yield (96.96%) with an ethanol concentration of 104.65 g/l obtained from 219.42 g/l of initial total sugar at a dilution rate of 0.092 h^-1. Furthermore, we reversed the substrate-feed flow directions in the in-series bioreactors to keep the cells at their highest activity and to extend the length of continuous fermentation. Our study demonstrates an effective method of ethanol production with a new immobilized approach, and that by switching the flow directions, traditional continuous fermentation can be greatly improved, which could have practical and broad implications in industrial applications.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.346-351
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• 1995

To produce ethanol from Jerusalem artichoke powder efficiently, Kluyveromyces marxianus F043 cells were encapsulated in 2% sodium alginate and were cultured in a countinuous reactor to investigate the fermentation properties. Immobilized K. marxianus F043 cells were activated for 48 hours in a fermentor for continuous ethanol production. The culture in a CSTR using a Jerusalem artichoke substrate treated with 2% cellulase showed a decrease in ethanol concentration and an increase in residual saccharide concentration with a increasing dilution rate. Optimum conditions for high ethanol productivity and low residual saccharide output were clarified to be given at a dilution rate of 0.2 h$^{-1}$ and a Jerusalem artichoke medium concentration of 75 g/l. Ethanol productivity of 3.1 g/l-h and saccharide utilization of 62.6% were obtained under the optimum condition. When the fermentation was performed for 3 weeks under these conditions, the effluent medium showed stable ethanol concentrations of 16.3 - 17.9 g/l and viable cells of 6.60-7.16 log cells/ml without contamination. Trace amounts of methyl, n-propyl, iso-butyl, isoamyl alcohols besides ethanol were detected.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.398-404
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• 1991

- Ethanol production by calcium alginate-immobilized baker's yeast was studied in the continuous shaked-flask reactor (CSFR) using glucose medium as a feed. Immobilized cells were stable at 30~$37^{\circ}C$ and pH 4~8. Fermentation characteristics of immobilized baker's yeast were examined changing the initial glucose concentration employed were 50, 100 and 150 g/l, respectively. It was investigated that the influent glucose concentration and the dilution rate have an influence on the ethanol fermentation characteristics at steady state in continuous culture of immobilized baker's yeast. The optimum conditions for high ethanol productivity and low residual glucose output in ethanol prodution were shown to be 0.2 h ' for the dilution rate and 150 g/l for the influent glucose concentration. The maximum ethanol productivity, ethanol yield, specific growth rate and glucose conversion rate were around 7.12 g/$l\cdot h$, 0.23, 0.366 g/$l\cdot h$ and 78.43, respectively.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.419-427
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• 1991

Ethanol fermentation of glucose by a strain of Saccharomyces cereuisiae was studied in membrane recycle bioreactor, where the fermentation vessel was coupled with cross flow hollow fiber membrane. The cell recycle system controlled backflushing with fresh medium was proven to be effective in alleviating membrane fouling and allowing long term operation of high-cell continuous fermentation. Using 100 g/l initial glucose concentration, the maximum productivity of about 9 5 g/$l \cdot h$ has been achieved at dilution rate 2.5 $h^{-1}$ and bleed stream ratio 0.05 with the corresponding ethanol concentration of 35g/l and glucose conversion of 100%. Increasing the glucose concentration to 200 g/$l \cdot h$ resulted in an increase in ethanol concentration to 48 g/l and productivity to 120 g1l.h. Substrate conversion, however, was only 69%. This productivity was the highest value in the study, and about 38 fold more than that of batch culture and 17 fold more that of single stage continuous culture without cell recycling. No further increase in the productivity was obtained when the glucose concentration was increased reased to 300g/l.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.316-321
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• 1994

We investigated the possibility of industrial application and economit process of high temperature fermentation by thermotolerant alcohol producing yeasts as previously reported. From the 20% glucose media, the RA-74-2 produced 11.8% (v/v) ethanol at $32^{\circ}C$ (0.5% inoculum) and 10.6% (v/v) ethanol at $40^{\circ}C$ (3% inoculum), respectively. Also, 11.3% (v/v) ethanol was produced for 96 hours in the temperature-gradient fermentation. These results suggest that the RA-74-2 could isuccessfully be applied to save the cooling water and energy in industrial scale without re-investment or modification of established fermentation systems. When potato starch was used as the substrate for the RA-74-2, high temperature fermentation above $40^{\circ}C$ was more appropriate for industrial utilization because organic nitrogen was not necessary to economical fermentation. As the naked barley media just prior to industrial inoculation, taken from the Poongkuk alcohol industry Co., were used, 9.6% (v/v) ethanol was produced at $40^{\circ}C$ for 48 hours in jar-fermentor scale (actually, 9.5-9.8% (v/v) ethanol was produced at 30~$32^{\circ}C$ for 100 hours in industrial scale). The ethanol productivity was increased by the high glucoamylase activity as well as the high metabolic ratio at $40^{\circ}C$ Therefore, if the thermotolerant yeast RA-74-2 would be used in industrial scale, we could obtain a high productivity and saving of the cooling water and energy. Meanwhile, the RA-912 produced 6%(v/v) ethanol in 10% glucose media at $45^{\circ}C$ and showed the less ethanol-tolerance compared with industrial strains. As the produced alcohol was recovered by the vacuum evaporator at $45^{\circ}C$ in 15% glucose media, the final fermentation ratio was enhanced (76% of theoretical yields). This suggest that a hyperproductive process could be achieved by a continuous input of the substrate and continuous recovery of the product under vacuum in high cell-density culture.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.104-107
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• 1994

A cone-type tower fermentor packed with Sacchromyces uvarum was employed to examine the continuous ethanol fermentation process. The maximum yeast concentration in the cone-type tower fermentor was 37.5-39.5g/$\ell$, the maximum ethanol productivity at the dilution rate of $hr^{-1}$ was 16.3g/$\ell$ . hr and the average ethanol yield was 0.48g EtOH/g glucose, which was 94% of the maximum theoretical yield. It was concluded that a cone-type tower fermentor might offer better perspectives for continuous ethanol fermentation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.205-212
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• 1988

The immobilized cell tubular tormentor was prepared by wood chips or alginate gel. Investigations of characterization of the performance of ethanol fermentation in the immobilized cell tubular tormentor were undertaken and the results were compared with those of other tormentors. The immobilized cell tormentor packed with alginate gel showed much higher ethanol productivity than that with wood chip. It was concluded that the immobilized cell tubular tormentor packed with alginate gel might offer better perspectives for continuous ethanol production than that with wood chip.