title: Bioethanol production by reusable Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized in a macroporous monolithic hydrogel matrices.
abstract: Performance of yeasts on industrial processes can be dramatically improved by immobilization of the biocatalyst. The immobilization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae inside monolithic macroporous hydrogels were produced by in-situ polymerization of acrylamide around a live yeast suspension under cryogelation conditions. Preculture of the yeasts was not necessary and this innovative and simple procedure is amenable to scaling-up to industrial production. The yeasts were efficiently retained in monolithic hydrogels, presenting excellent mechanical properties and high cell viability. Macroporous hydrogels showed a fast mass transport allowing the hydrogel-yeast complexes achieved similar ethanol yield and productivity than free yeasts, which is larger than those reached with yeasts immobilized in compact hydrogels. Moreover, the same yeasts were able to maintain its activity by up to five reaction cycles with a cell single batch during fermentation reactions.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto-CONICET, Ruta 36 Km. 601, Río Cuarto, Córdoba 5800, Argentina.
authors.forename: Lucinda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mulko
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto-CONICET, Ruta 36 Km. 601, Río Cuarto, Córdoba 5800, Argentina.
authors.forename: Claudia R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Rivarola
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto-CONICET, Ruta 36 Km. 601, Río Cuarto, Córdoba 5800, Argentina.
authors.forename: Cesar A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Barbero
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto-CONICET, Ruta 36 Km. 601, Río Cuarto, Córdoba 5800, Argentina; Departamento de Tecnología Química, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Ruta 36 Km. 601, Río Cuarto, Córdoba 5800, Argentina. Electronic address: dacevedo@exa.unrc.edu.ar.
authors.forename: Diego F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Acevedo
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels / Q000032:analysis / Q000382:microbiology; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D002470:Cell Survival; D018914:Cells, Immobilized / Q000378:metabolism*; D017743:Equipment Reuse; D000431:Ethanol / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005285:Fermentation; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate / Q000737:chemistry*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate; D000431:Ethanol
keywords: Bioethanol production; Heterogeneous catalysts; Reusable catalyst