Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati have developed an ultrasound-assisted fermentation method for safe production. A sugar substitute is calledXylitol“From bagasse, the residue left after sugarcane crushing. According to officials, the new method overcomes the operational limitations of chemical methods of synthesis and the time delay associated with traditional fermentation.
This is published in research Bioresource Technology And Ultrasonics Sonochemistry Journals
“With increasing awareness of the adverse effects of white sugar (sucrose) there has been an increase in the consumption of alternative sweeteners that are safe not only for diabetics, but also for general health. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol derived from natural products. Potentially anti-diabetic and anti -has obesogenic effects, mild prebiotic and protects teeth against caries,” V.S. Moholkar said, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati.
“The use of ultrasound during the fermentation process not only reduced the fermentation time to 15 hours compared to about 48 hours in conventional processes, but also increased the product yield by about 20 percent. The researchers used only 1.5 hours of ultrasonication. Fermentation, which means that ultrasound in the process Power was not used.
“Thus, production of xylitol from sugarcane bagasse using ultrasonic fermentation is a potential opportunity for further integration of sugarcane industries in India,” he said.
Xylitol is produced industrially by a chemical process in which wood-derived d-xylose, an expensive chemical, is treated with a nickel catalyst at very high temperatures and pressures, a process that consumes a lot of energy. Only 8-15 percent of xylose is converted to xylitol and the method requires extensive separation and purification steps, all of which translates into a higher price for the consumer.
Explaining the process, Moholkar said, “First, the team used sugarcane bagasse, the waste fibrous material produced after juice extraction from sugarcane, as a raw material. This overcomes the cost limitations of current xylitol synthesis methods and provides a method to eliminate waste production. Second, they used a new type of fermentation process in which the microbe-induced synthesis of xylitol is accelerated by the use of ultrasound waves”.
However, the researchers claim that the current research has been conducted on a laboratory scale and scaling up the process to a commercial scale may face challenges.
“Commercial implementation of sonic fermentation requires the design of high-power sources of ultrasound for large-scale fermentation, which in turn requires large-scale transducers and RF amplifiers, which remains a major technical challenge,” he added.
