Robustness and Ethanol Production of Industrial Strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Using Different Sugarcane Bagasse Hydrolysates

Sugarcane bagasse is one of the main lignocellulosic raw materials used for the production of second-generation ethanol. Technological studies on fermentation processes have focused on the search for and development of more robust microorganisms that are able to produce bioethanol efficiently and are resistant to the main fermentation inhibitors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the robustness and ethanol production of industrial strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using acid, alkaline, and enzymatic sugarcane bagasse hydrolysates. Hydrolysis was carried out to release fermentable sugars from sugarcane bagasse. Fermentations were performed in shake flasks containing sugarcane hydrolysates supplemented with 150 g L−1 glucose to evaluate the kinetic parameters of the reaction. Inhibitor tolerance was evaluated by incubating cells with different concentrations of inhibitors in 96-well plates. The biomass yield on substrate, ethanol yield on substrate, and ethanol productivity of the six strains were higher in 0.5% acid, 0.5% alkaline, and enzymatic hydrolysates (i.e., under milder conditions). The SA-1 (Santa Adélia-1) strain had a better performance in comparison with the other strains for its ability to produce ethanol in a very severe condition (7% acid hydrolysis) and for its robustness in growing at several inhibitor concentrations.