Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

In order to evaluate the possibility of bioethanol production from marine algae, (Ulva rigida C. Agardh), the fermentability of sugar hydrolysate acid of algal biomass, as a substrate, was investigated. Pachysolen tannophilus Boidin & Adzet, and Zymomonas mobilis (Lindner) De Ley & Swings were compared as fermenting microorganisms. The fermentation experiments were carried out in Erlenmeyer flasks maintained in a rotator shaker at 30°C and 120 rpm for
96h. It was shown that the hydrolysates presented different fermentability capacities. Ethanol yield obtained were 0.2 and 0.3 g/g of (sugar consumed) for respectively Z. mobilis and P. tannophilus strains in the same order. Under the optimized fermentation conditions, the method adaptation was an important strategy to improve ethanol productivity, allowing a maximum ethanol yield of 0.37 g/g for P. tannophilus. These preliminary results indicate a potential use of the macroalgae namely U. rigida for bioethanol production.