Heterotrophic Fermentation

Heterotrophic fermentation was the source of our project's sustainability.

- Overview -

Heterotrophic fermentation is a method of fermentation by which an organism uses sugars to produce energy coupled by ATP. The sugars are converted into oil, then biomass and/or alcohols, most commonly ethanol. Algal heterotrophic fermentation deprives the algae of sunlight and thus forces its photosynthetic nature to feed off of sugars in order to create a byproduct of bioethenol. This can then be converted to fuel.

- How Do We Use It? -

Normally, this process is done with highly calibrated machinery and tanks. However, to mimic this process, we used alternative materials including test tubes and different sugars including sucrose, fructose, and glucose. We first created our algae culture, then fed each algae type an eighth of a teaspoon of sugar. We then darkened the atmosphere in which the algae was to be grown and waited for the fermentation to occur. As the algae was deprived of light for photosynthesis, it fed off of the sugars we fed it as we awaited the results.

- Why Do We Use It? -

Because heterotrophic fermentation deprives the photosynthetic algae of its food source, sunlight, the organism has no choice but to feed off of the sugars given to it. This makes it so that its need to survive outweighs its speed of respiration. In this way, hypothetically, the algae breaks down the sugars in a faster way than if we were to give it exposure to sunlight. Using heterotrophic fermentation is a way to further study the abilities of photosynthetic organisms.

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