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Ethanol fermentation, also called alcoholic fermentation, is a biological process which converts sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose into cellular energy, producing ethanol and carbon dioxide as by-products. Because yeasts perform this conversion in the absence of oxygen, alcoholic fermentation is considered an anaerobic process.
The natural occurrence of fermentation means it was probably first observed long ago by humans. [3] The earliest uses of the word "fermentation" in relation to winemaking was in reference to the apparent "boiling" within the must that came from the anaerobic reaction of the yeast to the sugars in the grape juice and the release of carbon dioxide.
This type of fermentation is known as alcoholic or ethanol fermentation. The ATP generated in this process is made by substrate-level phosphorylation , which does not require oxygen. Fermentation is less efficient at using the energy from glucose: only 2 ATP are produced per glucose, compared to the 38 ATP per glucose nominally produced by ...
The primary role of yeast is to convert the sugars present (namely glucose) in the grape must into alcohol.The yeast accomplishes this by utilizing glucose through a series of metabolic pathways that, in the presence of oxygen, produces not only large amounts of energy for the cell but also many different intermediates that the cell needs to function.
In aerobic respiration, oxygen is required. Using oxygen increases ATP production from 4 ATP molecules to about 30 ATP molecules. In anaerobic respiration, oxygen is not required. When oxygen is absent, the generation of ATP continues through fermentation. There are two types of fermentation: alcohol fermentation and lactic acid fermentation.
In ethanol fermentation, one glucose molecule is converted into two ethanol molecules and two carbon dioxide (CO 2) molecules. [10] [11] It is used to make bread dough rise: the carbon dioxide forms bubbles, expanding the dough into a foam. [12] [13] The ethanol is the intoxicating agent in alcoholic beverages such as wine, beer and liquor. [14]
Mother of vinegar in a bottle. Mother of vinegar is a biofilm composed of a form of cellulose, yeast, and bacteria that sometimes develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids during the process that turns alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air and acetic acid bacteria (AAB).
Despite the bactericidal effects of ethanol, acidifying effects of fermentation, and low oxygen conditions of industrial alcohol production, bacteria that undergo lactic acid fermentation can contaminate such facilities because lactic acid has a low pKa of 3.86 to avoid decoupling the pH membrane gradient that supports regulated transport. [7]