Is the kind of sugar determinative for the release of a higher measure of ethanol? If so, which sugar releases the most ethanol?

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Yeast and fermentation: four different sugars

Karlijn Hasaart en Esmée de Looff

Summary

On the occasion of the experiment which is performed by Slaa et al. (2009); Yeast and Fermentation: the optimal temperature, we performed a following experiment by ourselves with the inquiry question: Is the kind of sugar determinative for the release of a higher measure of ethanol? If so, which sugar releases the most ethanol?

 We researched the different productions of ethanol and carbon dioxide by using four different kind of sugars; glucose, cane sugar, fruit sugar and malt sugar. First of all we put the solutions of the different sugars with water and yeast by a temperature of 25 degrees (298 K) for about two days. And then we put all the solutions in a warmth bath of 37 degrees (310 K). After three days we came back and we were able to conclude something we didn’t expect.

Introduction

Slaa et al. (2009) did their experiment based on the fact that oil resources will be exhausted. This knowledge stimulated Slaa et al.’s interest in one of mankind’s oldest chemical processes: the production of bio-ethanol from sugars by fermentation. In stead of the temperature as a independent variable, we took the different kind of sugars as a independent variable. We used glucose, cane sugar, fruit sugar and malt sugar for our experiment. The molecular formulas of these sugars and their fermentation equations are:

- C6H12O6 (glucose)         C6H12O6 → 2 CH3CH2OH (l) + 2 CO2 (g)

- C6H12O6 (fruit sugar)         C6H12O6 → 2 CH3CH2OH (l) + 2 CO2 (g)

- C12H22O11 (cane sugar)         C12H22O11 → 4 CH3CH2OH (l) + 4 CO2 (g)

- C12H22O11 (malt sugar)                C12H22O11 → 4 CH3CH2OH (l) + 4 CO2 (g)

So our question to be answered will be: Is the kind of sugar determinative for the release of a higher measure of ethanol? If so, which sugar releases the most ethanol?

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With the four different equations, we can calculate the different masses of the released ethanol and carbon dioxide.

On the occasion of the equations of the fermentation of the four sugars we can almost conclude that the biggest mass of ethanol and carbon dioxide will be produced by cane sugar or malt sugar. Out of the proportion between the sugars and the equation products we can see that glucose and fruit sugar fits twice in cane sugar and malt sugar. These two sugars have a proportion of 1:4 with their equation products. But before we can make ...

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