초록
Biotechnological production of xylitol is an attractive route to add value to a sugarcane biorefinery, through utilization of the hemicellulosic fraction of sugarcane straw, whose availability is increasing in Brazil. Herein, supplementation of the sugarcane straw hemicellulosic hydrolyzate (xylose 57gL<SUP>-1</SUP>) with maltose, sucrose, cellobiose or glycerol was proposed, and their effect as co-substrates on xylitol production by Candida guilliermondii FTI 20037 was studied. Sucrose (10gL<SUP>-1</SUP>) and glycerol (0.7gL<SUP>-1</SUP>) supplementation led to significant increase of 8.88% and 6.86% on xylose uptake rate (1.11gL<SUP>-1</SUP>h<SUP>-1</SUP> and 1.09gL<SUP>-1</SUP>), respectively, but only with sucrose, significant increments of 12.88% and 8.69% on final xylitol concentration (36.11gL<SUP>-1</SUP>) and volumetric productivity (0.75gL<SUP>-1</SUP>h<SUP>-1</SUP>), respectively, were achieved. Based on these results, utilization of complex sources of sucrose, derived from agro-industries, as nutritional supplementation for xylitol production can be proposed as a strategy for improving the yeast performance and reducing the cost of this bioprocess by replacing more expensive nutrients.