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. 2023 Nov 19;9(12):e22608.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22608. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Evaluation of different nitrogen sources on growth and fermentation performance for enhancing ethanol production by wine yeasts

María Cecilia Rojo  1 , Paola Mónica Talia  2 , María Cecilia Lerena  1 , María Lorena Ponsone  1   3 , Magalí Lucía Gonzalez  1 , Lucía Maribel Becerra  1 , Laura Analía Mercado  4 , Virginia Martín-Arranz  5 , Francisco Rodríguez-Gómez  5 , Francisco Noé Arroyo-López  5 , Mariana Combina  1   2
Affiliations

Evaluation of different nitrogen sources on growth and fermentation performance for enhancing ethanol production by wine yeasts

María Cecilia Rojo et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

The utilization of grape juice from low oenological value grape varieties for bioethanol production represent an alternative for diversification and value addition in viticulture. Optimizing Very High Gravity (VHG) fermentation can significantly increase ethanol productivity while reducing water and energy consumption. In this study, the impact of different nitrogen sources on growth and fermentative performance of locally selected yeast strains was investigated. Five yeast strains of species Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii were cultured in both synthetic culture media and natural grape juice supplemented with ammonium sulfate (NH), yeast extract (YE), Fermaid K (FERM), and urea (U) at varying concentrations. Due to the very low fermentation rate, the Z. rouxii strain was excluded from the selection. The results obtained in synthetic medium showed that nitrogen sources that promoted growth (NH and YE) had minimal effects on fermentative performance and were highly dependent on the specific yeast strain. However, the combination of urea and ammonium favored the rate of sugar consumption. When validated in natural grape juice, urea combined with ammonium (U + NH 300 + 75 mg/L) improved both growth parameters and ethanol yield. Doubling the concentration (U + NH 600 + 150 mg/L) further enhanced sugar consumption and ethanol production while reducing unwanted by-products. The combined use of urea and ammonium exhibited a synergistic effect, making it a cost-effective nitrogen supplement for VHG fermentations.

Keywords: ETHANOL; Fermentation; GROWTH; NITROGEN; YEAST.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Yeast strain dependent effect of nitrogen sources on growth (A: A: maximum biomass and B: μmax: growth rate) and fermentative (C: Yp/s: Ethanol yield and D: %SC: percentage of sugar consumed) parameters. Vertical bars denote Standard Deviation according to Fisher LSD Test (p ≤ 0.05).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Principal component analysis (PCA) of growth (A: maximum biomass and μmax: growth rate) and fermentative (Yp/s: Ethanol yield and %SC: percentage of sugar consumed) parameters with different nitrogen treatments for each strain (C, M, G and E) in synthetic medium. NH: diammonium phosphate, YE: yeast extract, FERM: Fermaid K (Lallemand Inc.) U + NH: urea + diammonium phosphate.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Principal component analysis (PCA) of growth (A: maximum biomass and μmax: growth rate) and fermentative (Yp/s: Ethanol yield and %SC: percentage of sugar consumed) parameters and wine chemical products of different nitrogen treatments for different yeast strains (C: blue point, M: red point, G: green point and E: grey point) in natural grape juice. NH: diammonium phosphate, YE: yeast extract, FERM: Fermaid K (Lallemand Inc.) U + NH: urea + diammonium phosphate.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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