Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Ethyl Acetate bacteria??

Fantasma4500 - 13-10-2016 at 05:23

so i have, or well had this 2L sugar concentrate, used for sugary beverages where you simply thin it down a bit
opened the thing this morning and i noticed a very obvious ethyl acetate smell, googled about but found nothing on bacteria producing ethyl acetate, although i do reckon that ethyl and bacteria has a lot of hits already, i saw one place they talked about 0.1% EtAc being an useful disinfectant... but that probably doesnt count for all bacteria (considering some bacteria doesnt mind arsenic)

of what i understand this sugar concentrate is made on sucrose and contains anthocyanins, as well as some acidifier, its supposed to be diluted down in 1:5 ratio, so its possible its about 60% sugar concentrate
im certain i can attempt to grow this bacteria, hoping that it isnt a massive mix up of different bacterias, counting mostly on how dense the EtAc smell was and still is in the container

so my question is.. has anyone heard of EtAc yielding bacteria yet??

Magpie - 13-10-2016 at 07:38

sugar water + bacteria ---> ethanol
ethanol + O2 + bacteria ---> acetic acid
ethanol + acetic acid ---> ethyl acetate

possible, no?

Texium - 13-10-2016 at 07:47

Not 100% relevant, but I know that ethyl acetate and other esters often form during the fermentation of beer (sometimes desirably) when acetic acid is present. My guess is that there's an enzyme or something in the yeast that catalyzes the esterification, as it doesn't seem like it would happen to a great extent in such dilute conditions otherwise.

BlackDragon2712 - 13-10-2016 at 09:25

The species of Saccharomyces is known to produce esters in alcoholic beverages which are rich in carbohydrates due to the presence of various acyltransferases... yeast in general prefers to grow in a more acidic enviroment than bacteria and they grow like crazy if large amounts of sugars are presents

Fantasma4500 - 15-10-2016 at 02:39

yes enzymes can make some pretty crazy things happen, just look at the chemicals our bodies are capable of producing at less than 50*C
i did think about it directly being esterificated, but it just seems like a really odd thing for bacteria to do.. what do they get out of creating an enzyme to react acetic acid with ethanol??

i would say yeast has a difficult time growing with too much sugar being present, i recall 20% sugar solution was a good choice for common yeast reacting with sugar

maybe this isnt an unique bacteria, but im thinking if theres a way i can figure out how to make these bacteria desire to produce more ethyl acetate? or maybe even isolate this enzyme to replace concentrated H2SO4 and being able to react ethanol and acetic acid at room temperature without needing high concentrations of both