Spathaspora passalidarum fed-batch fermentation for bioethanol production from sugarcane molasses and bagasse hydrolysate.

Simultaneous co-fermentation of sugar in a single process step is a central feature for second generation bioethanol fuel (E2G) technologies in order to achieve industrial and economic viability. Spathaspora passalidarum is a yeast strain that has natively shown several interesting features, such as co-fermentation of a wide range of sugars, making it attractive on bioconversion of lignocellulosic materials to bioethanol. Considering this aspect, the present work has focused on E2G production, using a mixture of sugars (mainly hexoses and pentoses) from hemicellulosic hydrolyzate supplemented with sugarcane molasses. Fed batch fermentation runs were performed with high cell concentration, mixed sugar composition (g.L-1): (Arabinose, 5.2; Fructose, 22.8; Glucose, 25.9; Xylose, 47.3) and raging flow rate from 30 to 60 mL.h-1. In brief, fed batch fermentation with high cell concentration of S. passalidarum presented an improved fermentation performance (Yps= 0.47 g.g-1, Qp = 2.04 g.L-1.h-1, Pmax= 30.3 g.L-1, E= 92%) and was able to co-ferment glucose, xylose, arabinose and fructose simultaneously under microaerobic conditions. The fermentation strategy proposed in this work can be consider as a promising strategy to improve E2G efficiency as well as to promote its scalability for industrial scale.