Co-production of bioethanol and probiotic yeast biomass from agricultural feedstock: Application of the rural biorefinery concept

Claire Hull, Joel Loveridge, Iain Simon Donnison, Diane Elizabeth Kelly, Steven Lewis Kelly

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
131 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Microbial biotechnology and biotransformations promise to diversify the scope of the biorefinery approach for the production of high-value products and biofuels from industrial, rural and municipal waste feedstocks. In addition to bio-based chemicals and metabolites, microbial biomass itself constitutes an obvious but overlooked by-product of existing biofermentation systems which warrants fuller attention. The probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii is used to treat gastrointestinal disorders and marketed as a human health supplement. Despite its relatedness to S. cerevisiae that is employed widely in biotechnology, food and biofuel industries, the alternative applications of S. boulardii are not well studied. Using a biorefinery approach, we compared the bioethanol and biomass yields attainable from agriculturally-sourced grass juice using probiotic S. boulardii (strain MYA-769) and a commercial S. cerevisiae brewing strain (Turbo yeast). Maximum product yields for MYA-769 (39.18 [±2.42] mg ethanol mL−1 and 4.96 [±0.15] g dry weight L−1) compared closely to those of Turbo (37.43 [±1.99] mg mL−1 and 4.78 [±0.10] g L−1, respectively). Co-production, marketing and/or on-site utilisation of probiotic yeast biomass as a direct-fed microbial to improve livestock health represents a novel and viable prospect for rural biorefineries. Given emergent evidence to suggest that dietary yeast supplementations might also mitigate ruminant enteric methane emissions, the administration of probiotic yeast biomass could also offer an economically feasible way of reducing atmospheric CH4.
Original languageEnglish
Article number64
Number of pages8
JournalAMB Express
Volume4
Early online date01 Sept 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Bioethanol
  • Saccharomyces boulardii
  • Probiotic
  • Cholesterol
  • Biorefinery
  • Biomass

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