The Effect of Glucose and Lactase Concentration on the CO2 Production of Yeast

Abstract

There are many different factors that can affect the fermentation rate of Baker’s yeast. In our experiment, we wanted to know if the complexity of the chemical compound of a sugar, when added to a yeast mixture, would cause the fermentation rate to increase or decrease. To conduct our experiment, we measured the amount of ethanol being produced in three different respiration chambers containing yeast mixtures, one with a simple sugar, one with a complex sugar, and one with no sugar at all (control group). We found that the simple sugar yeast mixture produced more ethanol than both the complex sugar yeast mixture and the control group yeast mixture. Based on our findings, we concluded that the simpler the sugar complexity, the easier it is for the yeast to break down and thus produce ethanol.