Jarrod Rowlette Bio.

B6 12/1/13

Biology Paper Topic Article URL: http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/1008biofuels_Yong-SuJin.html Certain Species of yeast can produce more ethanol while being treated with Acetic acid Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. What Types of Yeast are being tested? How much Acetic Acid is used? What solution is being converted to ethanol? How long will the solution ferment? Abstract Certain strains of yeast have been proven to be able to process sugars into ethanol while acetic acid, which is deadly to most yeast, is applied. Acetic acid is commonly found in some plants, and having a yeast strain resistant to this toxin could prove to help create more ethanol-based fuels. This experiment will have a constant substrate, an equal amount, by mass, of yeast added, and an equal amount of acetic acid, ranging from none to a dose that will most likely be lethal to the yeast inside, no matter their resistance.

Materials Plastic Cups Mash Dry Yeast Baking Active Yeast Rapid-Rise Yeast Acetic Acid Alcohol Percentage Hygrometer Digital Scale Carbon Paper Procedure Mash will be prepared 100 ml of Mash will be poured into 100 cups 1 gram of Baking Active yeast will be placed in 25 of the cups Repeat procedure with other types of yeast Control group of 5 of each kind of yeast will be left alone 5 of each yeast type will have 1 ml of acetic acid mixed in 5 of each type will have 5 ml of acetic acid added 5 of each type will have 10 ml of acetic acid added 5 of each type will have 25 ml of acetic acid added Solutions will sit in a cool, dark room or cabinet for 2 weeks At the end of the two weeks, solutions will be filtered, with all remaining leftovers disposed of Filtered solutions will be measured with the Hygrometer Solutions will be massed n a digital scale Amount of Alcohol (methyl and ethyl) by mass will be calculated

Research Fermentation is a process by which microorganisms, known as yeast, break down sugars in organic material to create ethyl and methyl alcohol. This process is employed by two major industries, the beverage industry to produce drinks, and the fuel industry to produce a cost-effective additive. Normally, the fuel industry uses corn to produce the additive, but con has a specific growing season and takes a long time to grow. They had been looking at other plants that grow year-round, but those have high amounts of acetic acid, which kills the yeast they use to ferment. Acetic acid is the main ingredient in vinegar, and has a lo pH, rendering it harmful to susceptible organic life.

Experiment The type of mash used was sugar-cane based moonshine mash, commonly used to make sugar shine. The Acetic acid was taken from a 5% solution. Four types of yeast were tested, Fleischmanns Rapid Rise, Fleischmanns Active Dry, Fleischmanns Bread style, and Red Star Active. These yeasts were allowed to ferment undisturbed for the set amount of time, and the percent ethyl alcohol was measured. Two results from group one had to be thrown out, one had a fly land in it, and the other was tipped over during measurement.

Analysis Oddly, the inverse of what the paper from Illinois showed occurred. In all types of yeast, the lower amounts of acetic acid caused a drop in yeast productivity, averaging around 2% yield. The higher amounts of acetic acid had a rapid increase in the productivity, producing several 8% or higher specimens. The most likely cause for this could be that when the acid was added to the samples, it aerated the sample, causing the yeast to work harder. The yeast the performed best overall was the Fleischmanns active dry. The yeast with the most consistent results per amount of vinegar is the Fleischmanns Rapid Rise. There were usually outliers in the data, which could mean something, but not enough samples were taken to be able to reach a conclusion on this matter. Red Star active seemed to perform the worst, until the 25 ml acetic acid solution, which it averaged 9.8% yield. Certain specimens from group the Red Star active tests became carbonated, and fizzed when filtered. None of these specimens produced any measurable amount of alcohol, which would lead me to believe these yeast were bred to create gas rather than convert sugar,

Conclusion The first major point discovered in this experiment is that adding acetic acid to baking yeast can make them more productive. This was based on many trials, the averages reflecting a very high amount of yield from the higher subjects form all 4 types of yeast. Secondly, this data could not be applied to the purpose for which it was created. The yeast were common household yeast that cannot match the effectivity or speed of the yeast used by the fuel industry. The problem with the fuel industry yeast is that they have been bred for speed in converting corn based sugars, rather than creating CO2 in bread. There were some major sources of error possible. The yeast were so light that some may have gotten out of the sample area before the liquid was added. As always there was human error, which could have skewed measurements created for this yeast. Another major source of error is that the device used to measure alcohol yield was a hydrometer, which measures viscosity and density. Because it is manually read, the numbers may not have been as accurate as possible. Another major source would be the fact that the first hydrometer broke, and had to be replaced with a spare, which, while being an identical model, couldve been calibrated off from the other one.