High productivity ethanol fermentations with Zymomonas mobilis

Abstract

Bacterial ethanol fermentation using strains of Zymomonas mobilis are shown to offer many advantages over traditional yeast fermentations. These include significantly higher specific rates of sugar uptake and ethanol production and improved yields. In a continuous cell recycle system, a volumetric ethanol productivity of 120/g/l/h is reported. Possible future developments such as optimal cell recycle and the application of genetic techniques to the problems of improving ethanol tolerance and broadening the range of substrates utilized by Zymomonas are discussed.