Ultrasensitive\nBiosensing Microchips to Control Ethanol\nFermentation for Effectively Reducing Product Inhibition

The real-time and full concentration analysis of ethanol\nduring\nthe fermentation reaction could reduce product inhibition, thereby\npromoting productivity. However, only a few techniques can directly\ndetect the fermentation broth without pretreatment. To address this\nissue, we proposed an ultrasensitive biosensing microchip to realize\nthe precise determination of ethanol concentrations in the original\nfermentation broth, which relied on the construction of a Prussian\nblue (PB)/Au nanoflower architecture as the recognition probe. Since\nthe in situ growth of the nanoflowers, a biosensing microchip was\nfunctionalized to accurately recognize the ethanol within only 9 s.\nUsing this biosensor to monitor and control the ethanol concentration\nin the whole 109 h fermentation production, the ethanol yield has\nbeen increased from 47.1% to 50.09%, and the average fermentation\ntime has been reduced from 44 to 27.25 h to successfully cut down\nthe product inhibition during the whole industrial fermentation process.