Distilled alcoholic beverages have been produced through fermentation and distillation for centuries but have not purposefully involved a chemical reaction to produce a flavoring. Introducing a microorganism to produce butyric acid along with the typical yeast ethanol fermentation sets up a reactive distillation system to flavor a spirit with ethyl butyrate and butyric acid. The ternary interactions of water, ethanol, and butyric acid allow all three to vaporize in the stripping distillation, thus they are concentrated in the low wines and give a large excess of ethanol compared to butyric acid for better reaction completion. The stripping distillation has also been modeled on Aspen Plus^® V9 software (by Aspen Technology, Inc. Bedford, MA, USA) and coincides well with a test stripping distillation at the bench scale. Amberlyst^® 15 wet catalyst was added to a subsequent distillation, resulting in the production of the desired ethyl butyrate in the distillate, measured by gas chromatography. Primary sensory evaluation has determined that this process has a profound effect on the smell of the spirit with the main flavor being similar to fruity bubble gum. The current results will provide a pathway for creating spirits with a desired flavor on demand without acquiring a heavy capital cost if a beverage distillation column is already purchased

Single cell oils (SCOs) are considered potential raw material for the production of biodiesel. Rhodosporidium sp. and Lipomyces sp. are good candidates for SCO production. Lipid extractability differs according to yeast species and literature on the most suitable method for each oleaginous yeast species is scarce. This work aimed to investigate the efficiency of the most cited strategies for extracting lipids from intact and pretreated cells of Rhodosporidium toruloides and Lipomyces starkeyi. Lipid extractions were conducted using hexane or combinations of chloroform and methanol. The Folch method resulted in the highest lipid yields for both yeasts (42% for R. toruloides and 48% for L. starkeyi). Also, this method eliminates the cell pretreatment step. The Bligh and Dyer method underestimated the lipid content in the tested strains (25% for R. toruloides and 34% for L. starkeyi). Lipid extractability increased after acid pretreatment for the Pedersen, hexane, and Bligh and Dyer methods. For R. toruloides unexpected fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) composition were found for some lipid extraction strategies tested. Therefore, this work provides useful information for analytical and process development aiming at biodiesel production from the SCO of these two yeast species.

This paper presents a novel process for n-butanol production which combines a fermentation consuming carbon dioxide (succinic acid fermentation) with subsequent catalytic reduction steps to add hydrogen to form butanol. Process simulations in Aspen Plus have been the basis for the techno-economic analyses performed. The overall economy for the novel process cannot be justified, as production of succinic acid by fermentation is too costly. Though, succinic acid price is expected to drop drastically in a near future. By fully integrating the succinic acid fermentation with the catalytic conversion the need for costly recovery operations could be reduced. The hybrid process would need 22% less raw material than the butanol fermentation at a succinic acid fermentation yield of 0.7 g/g substrate. Additionally, a carbon dioxide fixation of up to 13 ktonnes could be achieved at a plant with an annual butanol production of 10 ktonnes

Clostridium tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755 is an acidogenic bacterium capable of utilizing xylose for the fermentation production of butyrate. Hot water extraction of hardwood lingocellulose is an efficient method of producing xylose where autohydrolysis of xylan is catalysed by acetate originating from acetyl groups present in hemicellulose. The presence of acetic acid in the hydrolysate might have a severe impact on the subsequent fermentations. In this study the fermentation kinetics of C. tyrobutyricum cultures after being classically adapted for growth at 26.3 g/L acetate equivalents were studied. Analysis of xylose batch fermentations found that even in the presence of high levels of acetate, acetate adapted strains had similar fermentation kinetics as the parental strain cultivated without acetate. The parental strain exposed to acetate at inhibitory conditions demonstrated a pronounced lag phase (over 100 hours) in growth and butyrate production as compared to the adapted strain (25 hour lag) or non-inhibited controls (0 lag). Additional insight into the metabolic pathway of xylose consumption was gained by determining the specific activity of the acetate kinase (AK) enzyme in adapted versus control batches. AK activity was reduced by 63% in the presence of inhibitory levels of acetate, whether or not the culture had been adapted.

A carbon source for the fermentation production of butyrate is xylose extracted from ligno-cellulosic material by hot water extraction. Although this auto-hydrolysis of hemicellulose can provide a low-cost source of xylose, the process generates a high level of acetic acid that might inhibit subsequent fermentations. This study focuses on the effects of acetate on the production of butyrate from xylose by batch fermentations with a selected strain Clostridium tyrobutyricum.At initial acetate concentrations of 17.6 g L-1 and 26.3 g L-1 in the media, C. tyrobutyricum cultures exhibited a lag phase (45 and 118 hours, respectively) in terms of sugar consumption, butyrate production and cell biomass growth, lowering the overall production rate. Butyrate fermentations performed with high concentrations of acetate in the media demonstrated a re-uptake of acetate into the butyrate production pathway and after the lag phase, all cultures adapted to the inhibitory acetate, which increased the final butyrate yields by 12.6% (32.6 g L-1 compared to 28.5 g L-1).

Background: Mycelium of the medicinal mushroom shiitake, Lentinus edodes, is a potential source for production of the blood cholesterol reducing compound eritadenine. To increase the mycelial biomass and in turn the production of eritadenine, a potential growth promoting substance in the form of a water extract of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) was added to the culture media.

Results: The hot water extract of DDGS was shown to considerably increase the growth of shiitake mycelia in bioreactor cultivations; the mycelial yield was 2-3 times higher than in the control, and the highest final biomass concentration obtained was 3.4 g L -1. Further, by using shake flask cultures as inoculums the bioreactor cultivation time could be reduced by 1 week for some of the experiments. The highest final titer of eritadenine in the present study was 25.1 mg L -1, which was about 2 times higher than in the control, and was also obtained when a water extract of DDGS was added to the culture medium.

Conclusion: It was demonstrated that a water extract of DDGS promoted the growth of shiitake mycelia in bioreactor cultivations, along with enhanced eritadenine production.

Soybean oil derivatives containing a Schiff-base (SOS-B) were prepared and evaluated as microbial corrosion inhibitors against sulfate-reducing bacteria using the gram-positive Desulfosporosinus orientis bacteria as a representative bacterium. These SOS-B compounds were also found to be excellent inhibitors against acidic corrosion of carbon steel. These soybean oil derivatives were prepared by ozonation of soybean oil to yield aldehyde functional intermediates which were then reacted with benzylamine to produce a mixture of imine functional triglycerides and linear compounds. The structure of these soy-based derivatives was confirmed by FTIR and NMR. It was found that the addition of these SOS-B compounds to D. orientis culture provided a complete inhibition of this bacterium. Furthermore, almost no corrosion of carbon steel panels was observed when the panels were aged in 2N HCl solution containing 10 ppm of these SOS-B compounds

Knowledge of the solid state is of great importance in the development of a new active pharmaceutical ingredient, since the solid form often dictates the properties and performance of the drug. In the present study, solid state characteristics of the sodium salt of the candidate cholesterol reducing compound eritadenine, 2(R), 3(R))-dihydroxy-4-(9-adenyl)-butanoic acid, were investigated. The compound was crystallized by slow cooling from water and various aqueous ethanol solutions, at different temperatures. Further, the compound solution was subjected to lyophilization and to high vacuum drying. The resulting solids were screened for polymorphism by micro Raman spectroscopy (λex = 830 nm) and the crystallinity was investigated by X-ray powder diffraction. Further, thermal analysis was applied to study possible occurrence of solvates or hydrates. Solids obtained from slow cooling showed crystallinity, whereas rapid cooling gave rise to more amorphous solids. Analysis of difference spectra of the Raman data for solids obtained from slow cooling of solution revealed subtle differences in the structures between crystals derived from pure water and crystals derived from aqueous ethanol solutions. Finally, from the thermal analysis it was deduced that crystals obtained from pure water were stoichiometrically dihydrates whereas crystals obtained from aqueous ethanol solutions were 2.5 hydrates; this formation of different hydrates were supported by the Raman difference analysis.

'new' top-ranked building blocks; Citric acid recovery from fermentation broths and CaCO3 precipitation; Citric, acetic and lactic acid - top three industrial carboxylic acids; Fermentation-based building blocks for renewable resource-based surfactants; Fermentation-based building blocks for surfactants; Filamentous fungi, Aspergillus niger and Candida yeast strains; New fermentation-based building blocks; Organic acid metabolites - as hydrophilic moiety; Sulfonates - largest market share of anionic surfactants; Sulfosuccinate class of surfactants