Hri, Inc.

Matthew Grossman

Marcel Faber

Jerome D Bernstein

This invention provides a process for producing ethanol from a D-sugar in a continuous aerobic environment using a flocculant respiration-deficient mutant of Saccharomyces uvarum in a single stage fermentor with a cell settling tank and cell recycle, at a productivity of more than 50 grams ethanol per liter fermentor volume per hour. The process comprises (a) innoculating a fermentation zone with a respiration-deficient mutant of Saccharomyces uvarum; (b) feeding a mixture of a D-sugar, a nitrogen source, a vitamin source and a mineral source into the fermentation zone in the presence of oxygen, and (c) fermenting the D-sugar mixture for a sufficiently long period of time to yield an ethanol product. In the process, the yeast are allowed to settle for a sufficiently long period of time and recycled to the fermentation zone to increase ethanol productivity. The preferred D-sugar that may be used in the present process to produce ethanol, is D-glucose.

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Piscataway, NJ, United States of America

Matthew Grossman