How the rate of ethanol production by Baker’s Yeast (Saccharomyces cervisiae) is affected by fructose and glucose concentrations.

Abstract

Baker’s yeast and sugar are two integral variables in the conversion of sugar to ethanol; ethanol is an industrial necessity for modern civilization (French 2015). Our experiment helps us understand the relationship between different types of sugars’ concentration ratios and ethanol production. To do this, we measured ethanol production for baker’s yeast exposed to solutions containing concentrations of 1.5% fructose with 0.5% glucose, 1.5% glucose with 0.5% fructose, 2% fructose, and 2% glucose. We hypothesize that a concentration of 1.5% fructose with 0.5% glucose will result in the highest levels of ethanol production. From our collected data, analysis shows that the yeast using 1.5% fructose with 0.5% glucose produced the most ethanol but the group using 2% glucose also had a very high production of ethanol.