What happens microbiologically in the sugar and ethanol factories?

Cane juice and intermediate materials in the sugar and ethanol production process are favorable environments for the development of microorganisms that enter the factories with the cane.

During the process, these microorganisms can cause physicochemical changes such as increased acidity and viscosity in the process materials and the elongation of the sugar crystal. These changes have impacts on sucrose recovery, product quality and production costs, even on fermentative efficiency in ethanol production.
In this sense, a greater knowledge of microorganisms and their action allows us to understand what happens in sugar and ethanol factories and to implement actions to avoid their impact on processes.

According to Carolina Prieto, Cenicaña microbiologist, “in recent years, the Research Center has made progress in the task of identifying the microorganisms that prevail in the different stages of industrial processes, in evaluating their behavior and knowing their impact. This identification has been carried out with standardized molecular biology techniques, which sequence specific genes in each microorganism ”.

In the investigation, the strains of the most representative microorganisms were randomly isolated in different streams of the sugar production process such as clear juice, honey and honey. Isolated microorganisms include lactic acid bacteria, exopolysaccharide-producing bacteria, thermophilic bacteria, and yeasts.

"It was identified that the bacteria belonging to the genera Lactobacillus spp., Enterococcus spp. and Bacillus spp. they are the most predominant, given that they are capable of growing in a very wide temperature range ”, explained the researcher.

Regarding the behavior of some of the identified microorganisms, Cenicaña confirmed that the material most susceptible to deterioration is the juice and, therefore, the milling and filtration stages are those where there is a greater proliferation of microorganisms.