Abstract
The present study was conducted to determine the tolerance level of the yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae (NCIM 3186) towards a few selected organic solvents, viz. ethyl oleate, ethyl benzene, ethyl caprylate and decanol (decyl alcohol). The objective of the investigation was to search for a suitable solvent with low toxicity level on yeast cells yet having high separation ability so that it can be used for simultaneous fermentation and extraction of ethanol in a future study. The result shows that ethyl oleate can be regarded as the best suited solvent in comparison to other solvents studied in the present investigation. The order of preference of a solvent which may be used for extractive fermentation is: ethyl oleate > ethyl benzene > ethyl caprylate > decanol (decyl alcohol).