Ethanol production from direct sugarcane and juice by yeast

Ethanol production from direct sugarcane and sugarcane juice was studied using different yeast strains. The yeast isolates RY-5, RY-8 and a standard culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae produced 8–10% ethanol from sugarcane juice and 6.23, 6.40 and 6.64% ethanol by direct sugarcane fermentation after 24h at 30°C. A fermentation period of 24h and inoculum size of 2% was optimum for ethanol production from sugar cane and juice. The yeast biomass could be recycled upto three cycles without affecting ethanol production efficiency.