BIOENCAPSULATION 

Minerva Biotecnologica 2000 December;12(4):337-44

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Fermented beverages produced by yeast cells entrapped in ionotropic hydrogels of polysaccharide nature

Novratil M. ¹, Gemeiner P. ², Sturdik E. ¹, Domeny Z. ¹, Smogrovicova D. ¹, Antalova Z. ¹

¹ Department of Biochemical Technology, Faculty of Chemical Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic; ² Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Immobilized ­cell tech­nol­o­gy has ­been involv­ing in ­more and ­more indus­tri­al pro­cess­es includ­ing the bev­er­age indus­try. In ­this ­paper, ­some pos­sible appli­ca­tions of immo­bi­lized ­cells in pro­duc­tion of ­both alco­hol­ic and non-alco­hol­ic bev­er­ag­es are pre­sent­ed and dis­cussed. Calcium pec­tate gel ­beads, ­which are ­more mechan­i­cal­ly ­stable ­than cal­cium algi­nate ­gels, ­have ­been test­ed in sev­er­al bio­tech­no­log­i­cal pro­cess­es. Immobilized ­yeast ­cells ­were ­used for pri­mary and sec­on­dary fer­men­ta­tion of ­beer, ­where the ­total pro­duc­tion ­time was short­ened to 74 ­hours. Also, pro­duc­tion of non-alco­hol­ic ­beer and fer­ment­ed ­fruit juic­es was per­formed by immo­bi­lized ­mutant ­yeast ­cells defi­cient in syn­the­sis of TCA ­cycle ­enzymes. A ther­mo­tol­er­ant and eth­a­nol­tol­er­ant Saccharomyces cerev­i­siae ­cells immo­bi­lized in cal­cium pec­tate ­gels ­were ­used for con­tin­u­ous pro­duc­tion of eth­a­nol and ­mead; a ­three-col­umn ­packed-bed reac­tor ­with a tem­per­a­ture gra­di­ent was test­ed, and no sig­nif­i­cant ­decrease in activ­ity was ­observed ­even ­after 564 ­hours of oper­a­tion. We can con­clude ­that pec­tate gel exhib­its ­high mechan­i­cal stabil­ity and ­allows to oper­ate in con­tin­u­ous ­mode for sev­er­al ­weeks.