POTENTIALITIES OF YEAST STRAINS OF Saccharomyces cerevisiae FOR SUGAR CANE JUICE FERMENTATION

Three yeast strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae species, two flocculants, one of them non hydrogen sulfide producer, were evaluated for their behavior on kinetic parameters and production of volatile compounds, during sugar cane juice fermentation. The fermentation kinetics presented better performance in terms of fermentation efficiency, ethanol yield and specific growth rate, 89.9%; 0.46 g.g-1 and 0.0996 h-1, respectively, for the IZ 987 strain, that also produced larger amounts of higher alcohols, 185 mg.L-1, inherent to its H2S negative character. Higher ethanol productivity, about 3.40 g.L-1.h-1, was achieved by the flocculant strain. The strain isolated from baker's yeast promoted the poorest results.

yeasts; alcoholic fermentation; kinetic parameters; volatile compounds; sugar cane spirit