| Abstract: | Alginate-entrapped living Kluyveromyces marxianus NCYC179 cells were successfully used in alcohol production from whey permeate. Using 10% whey lactose as substrate, an alcohol production efficiency of 81.5–84.9% and 84.0–88.2% with cell viability maintenance between 82.8–84.3% and 81.0–84.3% of the immobilised cells during the monitoring periods, in batch (six repeat runs) and continuous (23 days of experimenting time) systems, respectively. The immobilised samples remained stable during the course of fermentation with no leakage of K. marxianus cells into the surrounding medium in the case of the batch system. However, slight leakage after 10 days of continuous run in the continuous process was recorded. The scanning electron microscopic studies of the beads containing entrapped yeast cells and sections or crushed samples of the beads carried out at the start and termination of fermentation in both the processes (batch and continuous) revealed that the immobilisation procedure does not influence any morphological change in the entrapped cells during the prolonged periods of fermentation. Moreover, the gel matrix structure was also found to be unaffected by the fermentation conditions employed during the course of present studies. |
