All Sugar, No Spice: Effects of Different Sugar Concentrations on Saccharomyces cerevisiae Carbon Dioxide Production

Abstract

In this experiment, we are testing the carbon dioxide production of yeast in different types of solutions with 2% sugar concentration of corn sugar, rice sugar, and glucose, depending on the control and experimental groups. We propose that the rice sugar (darker sugar) will cause the yeast to produce more carbon dioxide per minute than the glucose and corn sugar because of the fact that darker sugars tend to be unprocessed and bleached. We came to this hypothesis due to the fact that glucose is seen in many food products and has to be processed and tested before human consumption. The processed sugar might cause a decrease in the carbon dioxide production, but it is also visible due to the corn sugar being whiter in color than the rice sugar being a darker, almost light brown color. As our experiment progressed, our hypothesis was unsupported as glucose resulted in more carbon dioxide production than the corn sugar or rice sugar.