ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana - Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2019 July-August;178(7-8):538-43

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.18.03877-9

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Producing ethanol from D-xylose sugar through Candida albicans: the impact of temperature, sugar content and pH

Behrouz NAEIMI ¹, Rauf FOROUTAN ², Alireza BARMAK ³, Gholamhossein MOHEBBI ³ ✉

¹ Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Para Medicine, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran; ² Young Researchers and Elite Club, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran; ³ The Persian Gulf Marine Biotechnology Research Center, The Persian Gulf Biomedical Research Institute, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

BACKGROUND: In recent years, ethanol production has been paying particular attention, and is increasing its consumer market. Air pollution, global temperature rise, and the need for renewable energy sources, have supported the various organizations around the world for the production of ethanol as a non-polluting fuel source.
METHODS: Nowadays, ethanol is produced in the industrial scale, mainly by fermentation. In this study, the sugar D-xylose and yeast species Candida albicans were respectively used as a carbon source, and the fermentation process.
RESULTS: According to the results, the optimum sugar content, pH and temperature were 30 g/L, 6.5 and 35 °C, respectively. In optimum conditions, the ethanol production efficiency was 66.47%.
CONCLUSIONS: It was found that Candida albicans has a significant ability to ferment sugar-D-xylose, and can be used as an appropriate microorganism for the production of ethanol from the sugar.

KEY WORDS: Candida albicans; Ethanol; Fermentation; D-xylose dehydrogenase