Saccharification of Cellulose continued

The benefits of converting cellulose into sugar are great.

The following are some of the benefits that might be realized if an

energy efficient process could be found:

1. Food yeast such as Torula Utilis is very nutritious and,
like most yeast, it thrives on sugar. When grown in aerobic
conditions it grows rapidly and is an excellent source of
protein. i.e. It has an excellent amino acid profile.
Most importantly perhaps, it grows very fast and, when it
gets tiresome after steady use it makes an excellent food
for chickens.( As chickens greatly relish it and thrive on it.)

2. It is anticipated that food algae would grow very well and
very rapidly on sugar. Experiments with Chlorella have shown
this to be true, and it is anticipated that the same would
be the case with Spirulina. An interesting sidelight is the
case in which Chlorella lost most of its chlorophyl and turned
white in color when grown on sugar. If Spirulina did the same,
it would not only be more attractive as a kind of white flour
but it would be an extremely nutritious foodstuff as well.

3. Yeast can be grown on a wide variety of biomass. If the yeast
is grown on waste matter that has been converted to sugar,
then the yeast with the residual waste matter can often be
consumed directly by chickens without the need for an
expensive separation process.

4. What applies to the saccharification of cellulose also applies
  strongly to to the conversion of starches to sugars. There are
              many starchy tubers which are not currently being well utilized             such as Buffalo Gourd and the root stock of Cattails etc.
Also in the melon and potato industries defective products are
discarded when they could be employed to great advantage for
the production of crude sugars and the culturing of food yeast
for poultry feed.

5. There is now a variety of yeast which produce ethanol in aero-
bic conditions. Fuel alcohol can be produced indirectly with
reduced effort from cellulose and starch by the use of such
yeast.

6. The fungi Trichoderma viride and T. reesei can directly convert
cellulose to sugar. Recently research has been done on the safety
of T. reesei when it is used to products for human consumption.
The studies were done in Finland and published in the Journal of
Biotechnology by Helena Nevalainen, Pirkko Suominen and
Kaarina Taimisto. The conclusion is, " T. reesei is non-
pathogenic to man". Thus the conversion of cellulosic waste to
sugar can be done without danger to man provided other organisms
do not intervene.

This is the place where previous the experiments
become of great significance.

7. a) Harmful organisms in a slurry of cellulosic waste can be des-
troyed before inoculation with T. reesei by the method of
applying an acid shock treatment.

b) An acid shock treatment can be accomplished electrically by
periodically reversing the polarity of electrodes in an
electrolytic cell.

c) The electrolytes often occur naturally in cellulosic waste.
i.e. There are naturally occurring salts in vegetable matter.

d) The same electrolytic cell that provides acid shock steril-
ization also provides an acid condition at the anode during
a period in which the electric polarity of the electrodes is
kept unchanged.

e) That acid condition can be used to produce acid hydrolysis
of the cellulose in an anode compartment. Then the cellu-
lose in the cathode area can be converted to sugar simply
by reversing the polarity of the electrodes. The switch
places cellulose that was previously in an alkaline envi-
ronment into an acid environment.

 f) At the end of the process a controlled reversal in polarity
can be used to neutralize the pH throughout the reactor.
 

Conclusion:

An electrolytic cell configured to react cellulosic waste can

be used to accomplish several things associated with the pro-

duction of single cell protein for food:

1. It can produce ACID/BASE shock for product sterilization
prior to inoculation with food yeast.

2. By reversing polarity for a controlled period of time it can
it can neutralize the pH in the reactor.

3. It can produce acid ( and base ) hydrolysis for the conver-
version of cellulosic waste to sugars.

4. It can precondition cellulosic waste for microbial conversion
of cellulose and starch to sugars.
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BUT THIS IS A PATHWAY
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TO RAPID, HIGH YIELD PROTEIN PRODUCTION BY

YEAST AND SPIRULINA ALGAE SINGLE CELL

PROTEIN AGENTS
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