Optimizing glucose yields

Cellulosic materials are quite variable from source to source, not only in cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin content but also in the crystallinity of the cellulose. As a consequence, each natural substrate would be expected to have its own unique set of process conditions to optimize glucose yield and minimize secondary product contamination. The next section on kinetics of acid hydrolysis will examine this point. 

As the maximum TRS and glucose yields were always found at the extremes of the studied intervals, in future work, we will investigate if it is possible to improve glucose and/ or TRS yield by redefining the factor levels to cover a bigger area around the optimal conditions determined in this work. 

The most active extracts were obtained8 from L. mesenteroides cultures containing sucrose extracts prepared from L. mesenteroides organisms repeatedly transferred through D-glucose broth were of low potency.48 Active extracts in dilutions of 1 2 or 1 4 produced dextran in 5% sucrose solutions after one to two hours at 23°, and at pH 5.6 with acetate buffer demonstrable amounts of dextran were produced after twenty days with 1/10,000 dilution of the extract. Optimal yields of dextran were less than 5% based on sucrose. Small concentrations of dextran were detected by means of precipitin titrations with pneumococcus antisera Types II or XX (see page 215). 

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