Is bigger always better: Ethanol Production of Yeast using Three Different Sized Sugar Molecules

Abstract

 Through the process of fermentation, yeast utilizes sugar to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide. In our experiment we tested three different sized sugar molecules to see which one was best utilized by the yeast in fermentation. We chose dextrose, sucrose, and starch as our different sized sugars, with dextrose being the smallest molecule and starch the largest. The simplest sugar will produce the most ethanol because it is broken down and utilized faster than larger molecule sugars. Through our experiments, our hypothesis was supported and the dextrose produced the most ethanol while the yeast produced the least ethanol.