The effects of different concentrations of glucose and starch on ethanol production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Through the process of fermentation, yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) produces ethanol. Fermentation is what provides the energy yeast needs for things like growth (Stewart et. al., 2017). Fermentation is the process of the sugars being converted into ethanol and carbon dioxide. In our experiment, we tested the effect of different concentrations of D-glucose and starch on yeast and the ethanol output. The reason we decided on these two substances is because one is more complicated and the other is the simpler. For our experiment, we hypothesized that the higher concentration of both the starch and D-glucose would have a greater ethanol output than the lower concentration. We expected the D-glucose to produce a greater ethanol output than the starch because it is less complex, and easier to break down. Our hypothesis was only partially supported. We found that the D-glucose did produce a higher ethanol output than the starch. The higher concentration of D-glucose produced a higher ethanol output, but the higher starch concentration produced a slightly lower ethanol output than the lower concentration. Our research can help further studies in understanding the effect of the complexity of sugars and starch on ethanol output.