Screening of Thermotolerant Yeast Strain for Ethanol Fermentation

For the purpose of developing new thermotolerant yeast strains for ethanol fermentation, yeasts were isolated from molasses and screened for their fermentation ability at elevated temperatures. Three candidate strains were screened. These strains preferred pH 5.0 and 34 for their ethanol production. Under such conditions the three strains showed average ethanol productivity of 75g ethanol per liter of fermentation broth in n synthetic medium containing glucose as substrate. These strains were identified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluveromyces marxianus.