Aerobic fermentation: the effect of yeast fermentation on the temperature of a sugar/sodium phosphate solution

Abstract

Multiple factors affect the fermentation rates of yeast, which in turn determine the speed at which they can carry out functional processes because fermentation provides them with the energy they need. Sugar and temperature have both shown to be influential in the yeast’s rate of fermentation. Additionally, energy production usually involves some sort of heat transfer. However, no studies have calculated the effects of the fermentation rate on the yeast solution’s release of heat during the reaction. The goal of this study is to test whether or not the fermentation of sucrose releases heat during the process. For this experiment, we tested two trials of five different concentrations of sucrose solutions, plus one without sucrose, and combined them with yeast to measure their temperature over a time increment of 15 minutes. We noticed a possible flaw in our original procedure of the first trial, and so modified it in the second trial. Our results showed an indeterminable relationship between the sucrose concentration and temperature of the solution. It is possible that this was because the heat released was released into the environment, or that we structured our experiment incorrectly.