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Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: notmelidoperez on October 24, 2005, 11:40:00 PM

Title: Fermentation
Post by: notmelidoperez on October 24, 2005, 11:40:00 PM

What organic concepts are involved in the fermentation of molasses (which from what I've heard is primarily sucrose but also contains a significant amount of fructose and glucose) by brewer's yeast? I know that the end products should be ethanol and carbon dioxide, but I don't know what the hell this woman wants from me. I suppose she wants all sorts of reaction mechanisms and relations to chemical concepts but I have reached racke dmy brain for two days have have come up with nothing.

Title: Re:Fermentation
Post by: mike on October 24, 2005, 11:50:54 PM

C₆H₁₂O₆ ------> 2CH₃CH₂OH + 2CO₂


glucose ----> ethanol + carbon dioxide

Title: Re:Fermentation
Post by: Yggdrasil on October 25, 2005, 12:02:07 AM

Well, in anaerobic metabolism, going from a disaccharide like sucrose to ethanol involves a serries of thirteen reactions.  Try looking up glycolysis in an introductory cell biology/biochemistry textbook.

Title: Re:Fermentation
Post by: mike on October 25, 2005, 12:11:10 AM

Depends on how much detail you need to go into.

Sucrose is sugar, a disaccharide (made of glucose and fructose).

Glucose and fructose are fermentable.

See my first post for glucose :)