in a concentration of greater than 1 v v the ph should preferably be greater than 4 to promote growth of zymomonas ph adjustments are preferably made with nh 3 the process of the present invention can be conducted via a 34 cascade 34 of fermentation reactors or in a batch process such methods are known to those skilled in the art the production of a zymomonas culture that is in a growth phase i e a culture wherein the bacterial cells are actively dividing can be established by suspending the contents of an ampoule of zymomonas bacteria in a small volume for example about 100 ml of semi defined medium when the bacteria begin to reproduce the 100 ml sample is inoculated into a larger volume for example approximately 600 ml of semi defined medium and so forth until a culture consisting of several liters is obtained to the latter liter scale volume is added a carbohydrate material which is fermentable by zymomonas e g a material containing glucose fructose or for some strains sucrose suitable feedstocks in this regard include sucrose based compositions like sugar cane juice and syrup sugar beet juice and syrup raw and refined sugar palm sugar juice and syrup and molasses and glucose fructose mixtures such as high fructose corn syrup high test molasses molasses treated with invertase to convert some sucrose therein to glucose and fructose and other sugar solutions other fermentable materials include starch hydrolysates which are complex mixtures obtained by treating liquefied starch with amyloglucosidase and which contain as major components glucose maltrin dextrin maltose.