Modelling the growth and ethanol production of Brettanomyces bruxellensis at different glucose concentrations

Aim: To study the effect of glucose concentrations on the growth by Brettanomyces bruxellensis yeast strain in batch experiments and develop a mathematical model for kinetic behaviour analysis of yeast growing in batch culture. Methods and Results: A Matlab algorithm was developed for the estimation of model parameters. Glucose fermentation by B. bruxellensis was studied by varying its concentration (5, 9·3, 13·8, 16·5, 17·6 and 21·4%). The increase in substrate concentration up to a certain limit was accompanied by an increase in ethanol and biomass production; at a substrate concentration of 50–138 g l−1, the ethanol and biomass production were 24, 59 and 6·3, 11·4 g l−1, respectively. However, an increase in glucose concentration to 165 g l−1 led to a drastic decrease in product formation and substrate utilization. Conclusions: The model successfully simulated the batch kinetic observed in all cases. The confidence intervals were also estimated at each phase at a 0·95 probability level in a t‐Student distribution for f degrees of freedom. The maximum ethanol and biomass yields were obtained with an initial glucose concentration of 138 g l−1. Significance and Impact of the Study: These experiments illustrate the importance of using a mathematical model applied to kinetic behaviour on glucose concentration by B. bruxellensis.