title: Enhanced ethanol production via electrostatically accelerated fermentation of glucose using Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
abstract: The global demand for ethanol as an alternative fuel continues to rise. Advancement in all aspects of ethanol production is deemed beneficial to the ethanol industry. Traditional fermentation requires 50-70 hours to produce the maximum ethanol concentration of 7-8% (v/v). Here we demonstrate an electrostatic fermentation method that is capable of accelerating the fermentation of glucose using generic Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the fermenting microorganism to produce ethanol. The method, when applied to the batch fermentation of 1 liter fermenting mixture containing dry yeast without pre-culture, is able to achieve ethanol yield on the high gravity level (12.3% v/v) in 24 hours. The fermentation results in almost complete consumption of glucose. With pre-cultured yeast, ethanol yield can reach 14% v/v in 20 hours. The scale-up capability of the method is demonstrated with 2 liter fermenting mixture. The method does not consume external energy due to its electrostatic nature. Our results indicate the applicability of the fermentation technique to industry applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA.
authors.forename: Anup Sam
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Mathew
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA.
authors.forename: Jiapeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA.
authors.forename: Jieling
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA.|The Applied Bioengineering Program, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA.
authors.forename: Siu-Tung
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Yau
mesh_terms: D061249:Batch Cell Culture Techniques; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D055672:Static Electricity
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol; D005947:Glucose