To rise or not to rise, that is the ethanol question: Ethanol production as it reacts to different temperatures with Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a living organism, typically used in baking production and alcohol fermentation, is the underrepresented cornerstone of our society. When studying the effects of temperature on Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast), most do not think about how it releases an output of ethanol. Yet, how much ethanol will be released? Industries and businesses that use Saccharomyces cerevisiae need to be able to know what level of ethanol that they want produced when making bread, alcohol and other products. Using lactose sugar rather than glucose, we wanted to be able to create a different viewpoint that others could use if they wanted to shy away from typically using glucose. In our study, we conducted an experiment to find if the higher the solution’s temperature was without going over 60° Celsius, the higher the production of ethanol would be produced. We found that in fact, the higher the temperature was, the higher the ethanol levels would be. This means that comparable to other controlled experiments, the results yielded by these tested trials were similar and beneficial, despite not fully supporting our original hypothesis. Overall, we wanted to know how ethanol productions would be if we added galactose into the solution.