isolation, identification and optimization of ethanol producing bacteria from saccharomyces-based fermentation process of alcohol industries in iran

Introduction: Due to the vast growth of world population, consumption of a lot of energy, limited energy supply and rising prices of fuel oil in the future, other alternative energy source is essential. Ethanol is renewable and a safe fuel and it is mainly based on microbial fermentation. The purpose of this study was isolation of high ethanol producing bacteria from the fermentation process of alcohol industries and optimization of growth conditions to be introduced to the industries. Materials and methods: The samples that were collected from fermentation tanks of alcohol industries were enriched in ZSM medium. To isolate the ethanol producing bacteria, the enriched culture was transferred on RMA agar. Bacterial growth conditions and their effects on ethanol production were optimized based on pH, growth temperature, agitation, fermentation time, initial substrate concentration and carbon and nitrogen sources. In addition, the morphological, physiological and molecular characterizations were investigated for identification of the isolates.Results: Three bacterial isolates ZYM7, ZYM8 and ZYM9 were isolated from fermentation tank. All isolates were able to produce ethanol 5.00, 7.60 and 4.00 gL-1 after 48 hours, respectively. The results demonstrated that all isolates were able to consume most sugars sources specially pentose carbon xylose. The isolate ZYM7 produced 13.00 gL-1 ethanol by consumption of xylose. The results of morphological and physiological characteristics showed that ZYM7 belonged to Lactobacillus sp. and ZYM8 and ZYM9 belonged to Acetobacter sp. Moreover, 16S rRNA sequencing and phylogenetic analyses exhibited that ZYM7 was similar to Lactobacillus rhamnosus with 99% homology and ZYM8 and ZYM9 were similar to Acetobacter pasteurianus with 99 and 98% homology, respectively.Discussion and conclusion: The results showed that that the isolated bacteria were suitable candidates to produce ethanol from raw material enriched with xylose. These bacteria could be introduced to fermentation industries.