Patent ID: 7022354

Claim:
A method for making a fermentation product comprising: immobilizing a non-flocculent yeast in a bioreactor, contacting a fermentation liquid with the immobilized non-flocculent yeast for a time and under conditions suitable for fermentation, and recovering the fermentation product(s), wherein said non-flocculent yeast is immobilized on a carrier selected from the group consisting of a chitosan bead, alginic acid and carrageenan and wherein said non-flocculent yeast satisfies the following: a suspension of 0.6 g of said yeast is mixed with 20 ml of water, 1 ml of 0.5 M acetic acid buffer solution at pH 4.5 including 1,500 ppm calcium ion is added to 9 ml of said suspension, the resulting mixture is left to stand still for 5 minutes at room temperature, and neither flocculation nor sedimentation of said yeast is observed.