Determination of the Optimum Conditions for Ethanol Production from Whey by Utilization the Local Isolate Kluyveromyces sp.

Abstract

A series of experiments were conducted to explore the optimum conditions for ethanol production from cheese whey. The optimum conditions were: incubation period, 8 days, fermentation temperature, 30◦c, Size of inoculum, 1.15 x 106 C.F.U/ml, initial pH of medium, 5.0. The optimum composition of the fermentation medium were : Whey containing 9.3% lactose and fortified with ( NH4)SO4, 0.015 % , Yeast Extract, 0.01% , K2HPO4, 0.015% and it was found that the addition of date Syrup at a level of 0.5% noticeably increased ethanol yield compared with the medium which contain no date Syrup. By collective utilization of all the optimum conditions mentioned above, the following results were obtained, metabolized lactose 70.9%, ethanol production 4.48% and fermentation efficiency 132.36%.