Baker’s Yeast and the CO2 Output when Combined with Different Carbohydrates

Abstract

Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae), Baker’s yeast, is a eukaryotic organism that obtains energy from dead organisms and organic waste using aerobic cellular respiration (Hoefnagels 2021). With that, S. cerevisiae, uses simple and complex carbohydrates as a source of energy to fuel yeast growth. The process of combining simple and complex carbohydrates with yeast produces a bi product of carbon dioxide and ethanol, referred to as fermentation (French 2020).  Yeast growth can be studied in a variety of ways. However, in our study, we examined CO2 production in baker’s yeast. Due to the chemical differences of carbohydrates we hypothesized that monosaccharide fructose would produce the greatest amount of carbon dioxide. We tested three groups of simple and complex carbohydrates and combined it with a growth media that consisted of a sodium phosphate buffer solution and water.  For each experiment, the yeast and growth media were placed in a biochamber for three trials per experiment, five minutes per trial with three minute intervals in between each trial. Carbon dioxide was measured using a CO2 probe and calculated with LoggerPro.  Our results for each experimental group suggested that sucrose produced the highest amount of carbon dioxide, followed by fructose and then, starch.  Therefore, our hypothesis was not supported.