US EPA

1463179 

Journal Article 

Butanol Production from Cane Molasses by Clostridium saccharobutylicum DSM 13864: Batch and Semicontinuous Fermentation 

Ni, Ye; Wang, Yun; Sun, Z 

2012 

Yes 

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology
ISSN: 0273-2289
EISSN: 1559-0291 

166 

8 

1896-1907 

English 

22362519 

10.1007/s12010-012-9614-y 

WOS:000302771000002 

Clostridium acetobutylicum strains used in most Chinese ABE (acetone-butanol-ethanol) plants favorably ferment starchy materials like corn, cassava, etc., rather than sugar materials. This is one major problem of ABE industry in China and significantly limits the exploitation of cheap waste sugar materials. In this work, cane molasses were utilized as substrate in ABE production by Clostridium saccharobutylicum DSM 13864. Under optimum conditions, total solvent of 19.80 g/L (13.40 g/L butanol) was reached after 72 h of fermentation in an Erlenmeyer flask. In a 5-L bioreactor, total solvent of 17.88 g/L was attained after 36 h of fermentation, and the productivity and yield were 0.50 g/L/h and 0.33 g ABE/g sugar consumption, respectively. To further enhance the productivity, a two-stage semicontinuous fermentation process was steadily operated for over 8 days (205 h, 26 cycles) with average productivity (stage II) of 1.05 g/L/h and cell concentration (stage I) of 7.43 OD(660), respectively. The average batch fermentation time (stage I and II) was reduced to 21-25 h with average solvent of 15.27 g/L. This study provides valuable process data for the development of industrial ABE fermentation process using cane molasses as substrate. 

Acetone-butanol-ethanol; Fermentation; Cane molasses; Clostridium saccharobutylicum; Semicontinuous