REACTION CHARACTERISTICS OF AN IMMOBILIZED YEAST PRODUCING ETHANOL

The reaction behavior or Saccharomyces formosensis immobilized by polyacrylamide gel is presented. Two types of the immobilized yeast are studied, i. e. the immobilized resting yeast and the immobilized growing yeast. For both of the yeasts, reaction rates are expressed by the Michaelis-Menten type equation with a linear ethanol inhibition factor. The Michaelis constants are close to each other, but considerably larger than that of native S. cerevisiae. A distribution of the growing yeast cell inside the carrier gel was effected. It was found that the cell density is somewhat higher near the surface of the carrier.