Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Production of 16.5% conc. ethanol from seagrass seeds

2^nd International Conference and Exhibition on Food Technology, Bioprocess & Cell Culture

October 28-30, 2013 Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza, USA

Motoharu Uchida

Keynote: J Food Process Technol

Abstract:

Physical Bioethanol (EtOH) production from aquatic plant biomass has a growing interest in this decade. However, aquatic plant biomass contains moisture at high percentage (87.5% on average, n=104) and the final products obtained by fermentation contain EtOH at a low concentration in the range of 0.1-5.5% vol/vol (usually less than 1%). This study used seeds of Zostera marina (seagrass) as a raw material and developed EtOHfermentation technology. Zostera marina known by the common names of eelgrass is the most-ranging marine flowering plant in the Northern hemisphere. This plant produces large quantities of seeds, at times numbering several thousand seeds per square meter of plants. The seeds (62.0% moisture) were collected at annual plant colony of Z. marina distributed in Japan, and dried for the use of fermentation. The seeds contained 83.5% carbohydrates including 48.1% crude starch on a dry basis, which is the same level with cereals such as wheat flour and corns. The seeds were saccharified with glucoamylase (50?C, 96 h) and obtained 10.3% glucose juice. This juice was further fermented (23-35?C, 15 days) with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and obtained EtOH at a 8.2% level by monographic double-fermentation and at a 16.5% level by parallel double-fermentation. The fermented products are expected to be utilized not only as biofuel but also as alcohol beverages in future. Culturing of seagrass seeds as a crop may open a new marine fermentation industry.

Biography :

Motoharu Uchida has obtained his Ph.D. degree at the age of 40 years from Kyoto University. He is a chief of coastal fisheries and environment division, National Research Institute of Fisheries and Environment of Inland Sea, Fisheries Research Agency, Japan. He has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and books.