The history of the Word ‘molasses’ ( ‘Melasse’ in German and Dutch) is not mentioned in Etymological
dictionaries since it is quite definitely and clearly derived from the Romanic languages. It occurs in the
same word from and with the same meaning in French, la mélasse, i.e. syrup or sugar honey and it has its
counterparts in other Romanic languages, melassa (Italian), melaza (Spanish)*, melaço (Portuguese),
going back to the feminine form of the Latin adjective mellaceus, -a, -um, i.e. honey-like, and ultimately,
to mel (Latin), honey. Accordingly, it originally was used in the context (substantia) mellacea, i.e. honeylike
substance. The change in meaning appears in the Spanish suffix -aza, which expresses a coarsening,
whereby attention is directed to the character of the substance as a coarse, thick crude honey. Any
attempt, therefore, to derive the word from the Greek μελασ (melas), black, is misdirected.
The term ‘molasses’ is applied to the final effluent obtained in the preparation of sugar by repeated
crystallization. The amount of molasses obtained and its quality (composition) provide information about
the nature of the beets (local conditions of growth and effects of the weather) and the processing in the
sugar factory, such as the efficiency of the juice clarification, the method of crystallization during
boiling, and the separation of the sugar crystals from the low-grade massecuite.
In white sugar factories the yield of molasses is in the neighbourhood of 4% on beets, corresponding to
up to 25% on sugar. With an average sugar content in the beets of 16-18% only 13 to 14% of the sugar
will be recovered as a commercial product. As an average, 2.2-2.6% sugar on beets will go into the
molasses when raw sugar is produced. The yield of molasses is affected by various factors and differs
from batch to batch. The daily storage loss in Western Europe is estimated at 0.062% sugar on stored
beets or 0.1% sugar decrease in the white sugar yield, resulting in the differences1 for
each 1% sugar decrease in stored beets.

Enymes%20Work%20on%20Molasses%20Fermentation.docx

description about Enzymes working on Molasses Fermentation.

Enymes Work on Molasses Fermentation

Tahir Farooque Mirpurkhas Sindh

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

 The present invention relates to methods of utilizing at least one transglucosidase enzyme to increase the amount of fermentable sugars in molasses fermentation processes. The transglucosidase enzyme can be used alone or in combination with other carbohydrate processing enzymes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

 Molasses typically refers to a by-product from sugarcane and beet processing. Molasses is produced globally in very large amounts. For instance, in the year 2005, molasses production globally was estimated at 50.7 million tons. About 48% of the total molasses was produced in Asia, and the major share of that was produced in India, China and Thailand. The molasses produced from cane and beets each has a similar sugar composition. Both types of molasses contain both fermentable and non-fermentable sugars. However, beet molasses contains a lower concentration of fermentable sugars and a higher concentration of non-fermentable sugars than cane molasses. Industrial fermentations predominately use glucose and sucrose as feedstock for the production of a multitude of proteins, enzymes, amino acids, alcohols, organic acids, pharmaceuticals and other biochemicals. However, in many applications, molasses can also be used in fermentations.

 Typically, the total composition of molasses from sugarcane or beet sugar (sugars, proteins, etc) contains significant amounts of proteins, non-fermentable starch and non-fermentable oligosaccharides such as raffinose, a tri-saccharide (galactosyl-glucosyl -fructose), and stachyose, a tetra-saccharide (galactosyl-galactosyl-glucosyl-fructose). These non-fermentable sugars cannot be used in the fermentation process because the enzymes used in previous processes have not hydrolyzed raffinose and stachyose to fermentable sugars. While a-Galactosidase, was reported to be capable of hydrolyzing non-fermentable sugars (See e.g., Suzuki et.al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,526, 1973; and Meguro et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,694, 1977), it did not hydrolyze raffinose and stachyose. Dextranase was also used to hydrolyze dextrins in sugar solutions (Murtaugh, J. E. 1999 Molasses as a feedstock for alcohol production. In: The Alcohol Textbook, 3rd Ed. K. A. Jacques, T. P. Lyons and D. R. Kelsall, eds Nottingham University Press, UK) but only worked on short-chain dextrins and did not hydrolyze non-fermentable sugars at all. Thus, better methods for enhancing the fermentability of molasses are needed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

 The invention provides novel processes for increasing the fermentation yield of molasses using a transglucosidase during or prior to fermentation. The processes are based on the surprising finding that the addition of a transglucosidase enzyme to molasses fermentations increased the yield of alcohol. Further tests showed unexpectedly that the transglucosidase hydrolyzed non-fermentable sugars in molasses, such as raffinose and stachyose into fermentable sugars. This was unexpected since transglucosidases are generally known for converting malto-oligosaccharides into isomalto-oligosaccharides such as isomaltose and panose which are less fermentable.