What will happen to the yeasts if the vessel carrying out yeast fermentation is tightly sealed? Will the rising level of CO2 inside the vessel be toxic to the growing yeasts or the yeasts have a strategy to overcome this situation?
Major problems derived from alteration of medium pH (1) and over pressure (2) should be considered.
(1) pH: Dissolved CO2 would acidify the growth medium:
CO2 + H2O HCO3- + H+
(2) The amount of CO2 formed is high: remember that 2 mol CO2 are produced per mol glucose, which would mean a high increase in vessel inner pressure. This could lead to an accident!
Both the products of yeast fermentation, ethanol and CO2, act as product inhibition.
Its not toxic, but CO2 will inhibit further fermentation activity of culture yeast..
The accumulation of CO2 can become toxic to yeast because in anaerobic phase, the cells can not reproduce
Hello there.
Yes, the fermenting yeast has strategies to overcome virtually any hard situation. However, the resistance to hazardous conditions is of course finite. So I will complete the reply given by Vicente Bernal.
(3) Although yeast can easily grow in anaerobic conditions, the excess of dissolved CO2 caused by the high pressure will mainly hinder yeast growth by unbalancing decarboxylation reactions.
Cheers
Its not toxic, but acid produced during fermentation, will increase the H+ ions in ur media which will hinder further yeast growth.
While CO2 in media helps in buffer activity to maintain pH and result in better growth of yeast.
You will also need a very stable vessel otherwise it might just blow up. Not a direct problem for your yeast, but not nice for your bench neighbours ;)
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