All living organisms obtain their energy from the environment through various processes. An example is a cellular fermentation, a pathway of breaking down sugars in the absence of oxygen. Yeast is one of the organisms that perform this procedure in the presence of a substrate to produce energy. The process also occurs in the muscle cells of animals when performing a vigorous activity and in bacteria. In alcohol fermentation, sugars are converted into carbon dioxide, ethanol, and other by-products.
Alcohol Fermentation Essay
This is the basis of manufacturing alcoholic drinks such as beer and wine. In lactic acid fermentation, pyruvic acid combines with electrons donated from NADH to form lactic acid and NAD+. Different types of sugars can be used by yeast for fermentation. Monosaccharides are simple sugars that are easily processed to produce energy. Disaccharides can be broken down into monosaccharides and used as a source of energy. Polysaccharides such as starch have long chains of glucose monomers linked by α glycosidic bonds. These links are digested to make the sugars available as an energy source.
However, some polysaccharides such as non-starch polysaccharides or resistant starch cannon are digested. Experiments were done to provide a better understanding of fermentation. In this lab, the amount of gas produced at different temperatures was measured. The hypothesis was that an increase in temperature causes an increase in fermentation. The dependent and independent variables were fermentation and the amount of gas formed, respectively.
The temperatures used were 370C, 250C, and 40C, and water was used as a control experiment. The volume of gas produced was measured after every 5 minutes and then compared after 40 minutes. In water, 0mL of gas was formed at every temperature while sucrose produced 0.5, 2.2, and 5mL at 40C, 250C, and 370C, respectively. From the results, it is evident that temperature affects fermentation. At temperatures of 40C, there was little gas production, while maximum gas production occurred at 370C. At low temperatures, the cells are inactive hence decreased fermentation. An increase in temperature promotes the growth of yeast cells and increases their activity.
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Alcohol has a variety of short-term and long-term adverse effects. Short-term adverse effects include generalized impairment of neurocognitive function, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and hangover-like symptoms. Alcohol is addictive to humans, and can result in alcohol use disorder, dependence and withdrawal. It can have a variety of long-term adverse effects on health, such as liver damage and brain damage.
Alcohol affects men and women differently.Alcohol can lower blood sugar levels.70% of 18-year-olds admit to drinking an alcoholic beverage at least once, while 80% of college-aged students report consuming alcohol.Approximately 17% of men and 8% of women will be dependent on alcohol in their lifetime.There are roughly 80,000 deaths that are related to alcohol abuse every year.
Fermentation is biotechnology in which desirable microorganisms are used in the production of value-added products of commercial importance. Fermentation occurs in nature in any sugar-containing mash from fruit, berries, honey, or sap tapped from palms. If left exposed in a warm atmosphere, airborne yeasts act on the sugar to convert it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The making of wines and beers uses this biotechnology under controlled conditions. Alcoholic beverages have been produced for centuries in various societies. They are often central to the most valued personal and social ceremonies of both modern and less literate societies. In such traditional ceremonies as childnaming, marriage feasts, and funerals, alcoholic beverages are often present. In Africa, maize, millet, bananas, honey, palm and bamboo saps, and many fruits are used to ferment nutrient beers and wines. The best known being kaffir beer and palm wines.
Industrial fermentation processes are conducted with selected microorganisms under specified conditions with carefully adjusted nutrient concentrations. The products of fermentation are many: alcohol, glycerol, and carbon dioxide are obtained from yeast fermentation of various sugars. Butyl alcohol, acetone, lactic acid, monosodium glutamate, and acetic acid are products of bacteria action; citric acid, gluconic acid, antibiotics, vitamin B12, and riboflavin are some of the products obtained from mold fermentation.
Yeasts, the main microorganisms involved in alcoholic fermentation, are found throughout the world. More than 8,000 strains of this vegetative microorganism have been classified. About 9 to 10 pure strains, with their subclassifications, are used for the fermentation of grain mashes. These belong to the type Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Each strain has its own characteristics and imparts its special properties to a distillate when used in fermentation. A limited number of yeasts in the classification Saccharomyces ellipsoides are used in the fermentation of wines from which brandy is distilled. The strains used in the fermentation of grain mashes are also used in the fermentation of rum from sugarcane extracts and in beer production. Since yeasts function best in slightly acid medium, the mash, juice, sap, or extract prepared for fermentation must be checked for adequate acidity. If acidity is insufficient, acid or acid-bearing material are added. For distilled liquors, fermentation is carried out at 24 to 29C for 48 to 96 hours, when the mash or must is ready for distillation. The alcohol content of the fermented must is about 7 to 9 percent.
For most distilled liquors, the raw material used is a natural sugar as found in honey, ripe fruit, sugarcane juice, palm sap, beet root, milk, or a substance of amylaceous (starchy) nature that can be easily converted into simple sugars using enzymes present in cereals or through the addition of suitable malted cereal. Maize or corn is the most important grain used as fermentable starchy cereal. Starchy roots and tubers are also used. Industrial production of alcohol from cassava in Brazil has been described by De Menezee (1). The alcohol produced is concentrated in a second distillation column to 97.2 percent and is further dried to 99.9 percent and blended with gasoline for energy purposes.
Malt is important in distilled liquor. In addition to converting starches from other carbohydrates to sugars, malt contains soluble proteins that contribute flavor to the distillate obtained from the fermentation of grain malt mixtures.
Grown throughout the tropics and semitropics, sugarcane and its products, including cane juices, molasses, and sugar are used to make rum and an alcohol derived from rum. Pressed juice from sugarcane can be used as the base raw material for fermentation, or the juice can be concentrated for sugar production with the molasses residue from sugar crystallization used as a base for alcohol fermentation. Molasses contains about 35 percent sucrose and 15 percent reducing sugars. This gives molasses its principal value as an industrial raw material for fermentation to produce rum. Two or 3 liters of molasses produces 1 liter of rum. Acetone and butanol also are produced from molasses by fermentation with Clostridiurn bacteria. Food yeast Torulopsis utilis, is prepared from molasses, as are baker's and brewer's yeasts (2).
Toddy ferments rapidly due to naturally occurring yeasts. Fermented toddy contains about 6 percent alcohol. After 24 hours the toddy contains 4 to 5 percent acetic acid and is unpalatable as a beverage. It can be used for the production of vinegar. Fermented toddy can be distilled to produce arrack. Freshly fermented toddy is used instead of yeast in bread making. Constant tapping of coconut palms for toddy eliminates the nut crop. In 1952 in wine distilleries in Sri Lanka, over 49 million liters of toddy was fermented to give 4.5 million proof liters of arrack (2).
Grapes are the most common fruit used as raw material for alcoholic fermentation. They are used in distilled liquor to make brandy. Historically, wine is the product of fermentation of grape species Vitis vinifera . The high sugar content of most V. vinifera varieties at maturity is the major factor in their selection for use in much of the world's wine production. Their natural sugar content provides the necessary material for fermentation. It is sufficient to produce a wine with an alcohol content of 10 percent or higher. Wines containing less alcohol are unstable because of their sensitivity to bacterial spoilage. The grape's moderate acidity when ripe is also favorable to wine making. The fruit has an acidity of less than 1 percent, calculated as tartaric acid, the main acid in grapes, with a pH of 3.1 to 3.7. The flavor of grapes varies from neutral to strongly aromatic, and the pigment pattern of the skin varies from light greenish-yellow to russet, pink, red, reddish violet, or blue-black. Grapes also contain tannins needed to give bite and taste in the flavor of wines and to protect them from bacteria and possible ill effects if overexposed to the air.
Other fruits can be used to produce wine. When fruits other than grapes are used, the name of the fruit is included, as in papaya or pineapple wine. Apples and citrus fruits with sufficient fermentable sugars are crushed, and the fermentable juices are either pressed out for fermentation or the entire mass is fermented. Tropical fruits such as guava, mangoes, pineapple, pawpaw, ripe banana, ripe plantain, tangerine, and cashew fruit also contain fermentable sugars with levels varying from 10 to 20 percent. Overripe plantain pulp was reported to contain 16 to 17 percent fermentable sugar, with the skin containing as much as 30 percent (3). 2ff7e9595c
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