No abstract

Abstract-Experiments on production of bioethanol through anaerobic fermentation of sugars extracted from low-quality dates using a wild strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were conducted at 30C and 33C. The effect of the pH during fermentation was insignificant at the operating temperatures.The average ethanol yield for all experiments was greater than 71% of its theoretical value. Experiments in a 1L volume fermentor at 30C and 120 rpm without controlling the pH during fermentation gave ethanol yields of 91.3%, 68.7% and 54.8 % for the 10, 15 and 20% initial sugar concentrations, respectively. The drop in ethanol yield for 20% sugars could be attributed to probable ethanol inhibition.

No abstract

Large amounts of low-quality dates produced worldwide are wasted. Here, highly concentrated fructose syrups were produced via selective fermentation of date extracts with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Syrups with 95.4-99.9 % (w/w) fructose yields were obtained from date extracts having an initial sugar range of 49-374 g/l without media supplementation; the corresponding ethanol yields were between 69 and 52 % (w/w). At 470 g initial sugars/l, fructose and ethanol yields were 84 and 47 % (w/w), respectively, and the product contained 62 % (w/w) fructose, which is higher than the widely available commercial 42 and 55 % (w/w) high fructose corn syrups. The commercial potential for conversion of waste dates to high-value products is thus demonstrated.

No abstract