Menu

Klaushofer, H.; Pollach, G.: On the problem of sugar losses by highly thermophilic micro-organisms in beet sugar factories. II. Microbial decomposition of reducing sugars (German). Zucker 25 (1972) pp. 388-395.   List of papers

Abstract: An investigation was carried out to find to what extent microbially formed acids in diffusers originate not from sucrose but from monosaccharides present in the diffusion juice (not formed microbially). The decomposition rates for sucrose, glucose and fructose were compared using pure cultures. It was found that different strains are involved and many act preferentially on monosaccharides, while others decompose sucrose more rapidly than its monosaccharide components. Causes of the differences in decomposition rates might be found, at least partly, by referring to suggestions in earlier published works regarding the presence of an “active transfer“ for the preferentially involved sugar. There is a relationship between the preferential decomposition of a given sugar and other mass transfer properties. A strain of hyperthermophilic bacillus frequently occurs in diffusion juices which primarily decomposes reducing sugars and not sucrose; it is characterized by a marked nitrite-reducing capacity. In the case of infections caused by hyperthermophilic H2S-forming bacteria, a small proportion of the acids formed by the bacteria result from reducing sugar decomposition.