MOSCOW, December 8 Omsk State Technical University scientists proposed to recycle industrial waste from alcohol production (stillage) using a certain type of yeast. In their opinion, the developed technology will help solve environmental problems associated with the accumulation and decomposition of this by-product in landfills, and the resulting biomass can be added to animal feed. The results of the study were published in the journal «Izvestia of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences».
As explained at the university, distillery stillage is a large-capacity liquid technological waste obtained during the production of ethyl alcohol from plant raw materials, primarily grain. Its utilization through aerobic decomposition by microorganisms feeding on ready-made organic substances (heterotrophs) leads to the depletion of oxygen in environmental objects, for example, in water bodies.
Scientists from Omsk State Technical University have found that the yeast Candida tropicalis AP-31-KBP Y-4883 is capable of rapid growth on stillage and significant accumulation of protein biomass, which can be used as an additive in animal feed.
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“After recycling with Candida tropicalis, the environmental performance of stillage was improved due to its consumption of nutrients found in the feedstock. At the same time, we have established that if we carry out special physical or chemical treatment of utilization yeast, then both the safety indicators of stillage and the results of biomass accumulation significantly increase,” explained the associate professor of the department of “Biotechnology, catering technology and merchandising.” Omsk State Technical University Nikita Evdokimov.
He added that after chemical exposure, the yield of yeast biomass when grown on stillage increases: by 65% compared to the control sample and by 10% after physical exposure, and the number of cells with glycogen increases by 4.3%.
«It is most convenient to scale up the results obtained for bioethanol production, since they are all associated with the production of a large amount of stillage. In world agriculture, 17% of the corn harvest and 19% of sugar cane are used for the production of bioethanol. For one ton of this The yield of alcohol is approximately 13 tons of stillage,” said Evdokimov.
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According to him, the results of the study can be used to describe the processes of recycling stillage in any of the countries producing plant biofuels.
The university noted that such technologies using the growth of biological agents on stillage have been little studied. The work of Omsk State Technical University is distinguished by the use of a new strain of yeast for these purposes, the influence of physical and chemical factors on them with an increase in the efficiency of use, as well as the assessment of the correlation of the physiological state of these microorganisms with the morphological characteristics of their cells.
Research on this topic are carried out by the university as part of the implementation of the Priority 2030 program.