Mead production: Fermentative performance of yeasts entrapped in different concentrations of alginate

Mead is an alcoholic drink known since ancient times, produced by yeast fermenting diluted honey. However, the production of mead has suffered in recent years, partially owing to the lack of scientific progress in this field. In this study, two strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, QA23 and ICVD47, were immobilized in 2 or 4% (w/v) alginate beads to assess the most effective alginate concentration for yeast immobilization to produce mead. Neither of the alginate concentrations was able to prevent cell leakage from the beads. The fermentation length was 120h for both yeast strains. In all cases, at the end of the fermentation, the number of cells entrapped in the beads was higher than the number of free cells, and the total 4% alginate bead wet weight was significantly higher than the 2% alginate bead wet weight. In addition, the evaluation of mead quality showed that the yeast strain had significantly more influence on the physicochemical characteristics than the alginate concentration. Although the yeasts immobilized in the two alginate concentrations were able to perform the fermentation, further research is needed in order to understand the evolution of the yeast population inside the beads throughout the fermentative process.The research presented in this paper was partially funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, and by the PTDC project (contract PTDC/AGR-ALI/68284/2006). A.P.P. is the recipient of a PhD grant from FCT (SFRH/BD/45820/2008).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells immobilisation on mead production

Mead is a traditional alcoholic beverage obtained by the fermentation of diluted honey performed by yeasts. In this work the potential of application of immobilised yeast cells on single-layer Ca-alginate or double-layer alginateechitosan for mead production was assessed for the first time. The meads produced either with entrapped or free cells were evaluated in terms of quality and aroma profile. The immobilisation procedure had no adverse effect on cell viability, since minor differences were found in fermentation kinetics among the strains and immobilisation systems. The double-layer alginate-chitosan had no advantage compared with the single-layer Ca-alginate, as the number of free cells in the medium, resulting from cell leakage, was similar. Although meads obtained with entrapped yeast cells presented less ethanol and glycerol and more acetic acid, it exhibited larger amounts of volatile compounds. Immobilised cells produced meads with more compounds with fruity characteristics, such as ethyl octanoate and ethyl hexanoate; however the concentrations of undesirable compounds in such meads were also higher. The effect of immobilisation on the aroma profile was important, but the strain contribution was also of major importance. Thus, the sensory analysis of final product gives an important insight on the overall quality.The research presented in this paper was partially funded by the Fundacdo para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, (FCT) and by PTDC projects (contracts PTDC/AGR-ALI/68284/2006). A.P.P. is a recipient of a Ph.D. grant from the FCT (SFRH/BD/45820/2008)

Impact of inoculum size on mead aroma compounds formation by wine strains of S. cerevisiae

Mead is a traditional drink, containing 8-18% (v/v) of ethanol, which results from the alcoholic fermentation of diluted honey performed by yeasts. It has been reported that mead fermentation is a time-consuming process, and an important objective of mead makers is to reduce the fermentation time without decreasing the quality of the end product. A significant time can be saved in the fermentation process by increasing the pitching rate, i.e., the amount of suspended yeast cells added to a batch fermenter. However, an increase in the inoculum size could also have deleterious side effects on the flavour profile of the final beverage. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the inoculum size of two commercial winemaking strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Lalvin QA23 and Lalvin ICV D47) on the mead volatile aromatic compound production. Honey must was prepared according to the recipe developed by our team, supplemented with potassium tartrate, pH adjusted to 3.7 with malic acid and the nitrogen concentration adjusted to 267 mg/L with diammonium phosphate. The appropriate amounts of inoculum were pitched into the honey-must to obtain five different pitching rates. Mead produced was analysed for major volatile compounds by GC-FID and for minor volatile compounds by GC-MS. A total of twenty-seven fermentative aroma compounds including alcohols, esters, volatile phenols, volatile fatty acids and carbonyl compounds were identified and quantified in meads. It was observed quantitative differences in aroma profiles, confirming the contribution of both yeast strain and inoculum size on the sensory characteristics of meads. Of the twenty-seven volatile compounds quantified, fourteen could contribute to mead aroma and flavour because their concentrations rose above their respective thresholds. In general, the formation of these compounds was particularly pronounced at low pitching rates. The esters ethyl hexanoate, ethyl octanoate and isoamyl acetate were the most powerful odorants detected in all meads. In addition to this quantitative analysis of the impact of strain selection and inoculum size on mead aroma, a complementary sensorial evaluation of the meads would yield further useful information for mead producers

Effect of nitrogen supplementation on yeast fermentation performance and mead quality

Mead is a traditional drink, containing X-1 X% (v/v) of ethanol, which results from the alcoholic fermentation of diluted honey performed by yeasts. However, when it is produced in a homemade way mead producers find several problems, namely, the lack of uniformity in the final products low or premature fermentations arrest, and the production of "off-flavours" by the yeasts. These problems could be due to several factors, including lack of essential nutrients such as a deficiency in available nitrogen. Additionally , it has been reported that mead fermentation is a time-consuming process, often taking several months to complete. depending on the type of honey, yeast strain anti honey-must composition. Since mead production is a time-consuming process. to make its production viable it is necessary to reduce the fermentation time while producing an end product of quality. Thus. the aim of this study was to evaluate I he effect of nitrogen addition 10 honey-must on two active dry wine yeasts (ADWY) fermentation performance, as well as on the mead composition and volatile aroma compounds production

Electrochemical Reduction of CO2: Influence of Pre-treating the Carbon Support

The production of useful chemicals by electroreducing CO2 it is a promising approach to reduce the levels of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. This is not a straightforward process due to the high stability of the CO2 molecule and low selectivity however, these barriers can be overcome by using an appropriate catalyst. This research focus on the effect of pre-treating the carbon supports before incorporating the catalyst on the electroreduction of CO2. We found that the electrochemical behaviour of the carbon supports is modified by the nature of the pre-treatment used. From the structure perspective, the results showed partial destruction of the carbon structure mainly after the oxidative treatments nevertheless, the introduction of defect sites in the carbon structure contributed to catalyst performance. This improvement was proved by the LSV data that showed the reduction of the current associated with the hydrogen reduction reaction

Avaliação da qualidade estrutural de solos sob uso agrícola no município de Sobradinho-BA.

O processo de estruturação do solo se refere ao arranjo das partículas formando agregados e consiste uma importante característica que influencia a capacidade de infiltração da água, a aeração do solo e a penetração das raízes. A avaliação da qualidade estrutural do solo pode ocorrer por meio de parâmetros como DMP, DMG e distribuição percentual de agregados por classe de diâmetro. Deste modo, o objetivo deste estudo consistiu em avaliar a qualidade estrutural de quatro classes de solos sob uso agrícola, localizadas às margens do Lago de Sobradinho, no município de Sobradinho-BA. Foram selecionadas 4 propriedades rurais onde foram coletadas amostras de solos nas profundidades de 0,00?0,10; 0,10-0,20 e 0,20-0,40 m tanto na área agrícola como na área de caatinga. Em laboratório avaliou-se percentagem de agregados por classes de diâmetro médio obtendo-se o DMP e o DMG. O uso agrícola alterou a estruturação do solo diminuindo o DMP, o DMG e o tamanho dos agregados em relação à caatinga, fato que pode ser atribuído ao processo de mecanização intenso do solo

Transversely projective foliations on surfaces: existence of normal forms and prescription of the monodromy

We introduce a notion of normal form for transversely projective structures of singular foliations on complex manifolds. Our first main result says that this normal form exists and is unique when ambient space is two-dimensional. From this result one obtains a natural way to produce invariants for transversely projective foliations on surfaces. Our second main result says that on projective surfaces one can construct singular transversely projective foliations with prescribed monodromy

PV system with maximum power point tracking: modeling, simulation and experimental results

This paper focuses on the five parameters modeling, consisting on a current controlled generator, single-diode, a shunt and series resistances. Also, a simulation, identification of the parameters for a photovoltaic system and the maximum power point tracking based on VP„g„g is presented. The identification of parameters and the performance of the equivalent circuit model for a solar module simulation are validated by data measured on the photovoltaic system