Abstract
BackgroundButanol is an industrial commodity and also considered to be a more promising gasoline substitute compared to ethanol. Renewed attention has been paid to solvents (acetone, butanol and ethanol) production from the renewable and inexpensive substrates, for example, lignocellulose, on account of the depletion of oil resources, increasing gasoline prices and deteriorating environment. Limited to current tools for genetic manipulation, it is difficult to develop a genetically engineered microorganism with combined ability of lignocellulose utilization and solvents production. Mixed culture of cellulolytic microorganisms and solventogenic bacteria provides a more convenient and feasible approach for ABE fermentation due to the potential for synergistic utilization of the metabolic pathways of two organisms. But few bacteria pairs succeeded in producing biobutanol of high titer or high productivity without adding butyrate. The aim of this work was to use Clostridium cellulovorans 743B to saccharify lignocellulose and produce butyric acid, instead of adding cellulase and butyric acid to the medium, so that the soluble sugars and butyric acid generated can be subsequently utilized by Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 to produce butanol in one pot reaction.ResultsA stable artificial symbiotic system was constructed by co-culturing a celluloytic, anaerobic, butyrate-producing mesophile (C. cellulovorans 743B) and a non-celluloytic, solventogenic bacterium (C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052) to produce solvents by consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) with alkali extracted deshelled corn cobs (AECC), a low-cost renewable feedstock, as the sole carbon source. Under optimized conditions, the co-culture degraded 68.6 g/L AECC and produced 11.8 g/L solvents (2.64 g/L acetone, 8.30 g/L butanol and 0.87 g/L ethanol) in less than 80 h. Besides, a real-time PCR assay based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence was performed to study the dynamics of the abundance of each strain during the co-culturing process, which figured out the roles of each strain at different periods in the symbiosis.ConclusionOur work illustrated the great potential of artificial symbiosis in biofuel production from lignocellulosic biomass by CBP. The dynamics of the abundance of C. beijerinckii and C. cellulovorans revealed mechanisms of cooperation and competition between the two strains during the co-culture process.
Highlights
Butanol is an industrial commodity and considered to be a more promising gasoline substitute compared to ethanol
C. cellulovorans produced 6.72 g/L of butyric acid, 3.17 g/L of acetic acid and 0.29 g/L of ethanol and degraded 59.7% of the substrate in 100 h (Figure 1A and B), about 75% faster than alkali extracted deshelled corn cobs (AECC) degraded by C. thermocellum strains SS21 and SS22 [24]
Some papers have reported that butyric acid and acetic acid accumulated in the broth are very useful in ABE fermentation, and can be transformed into solvents during solventogenesis of C. beijerinckii [26,27]
Summary
Butanol is an industrial commodity and considered to be a more promising gasoline substitute compared to ethanol. Renewed attention has been paid to solvents (acetone, butanol and ethanol) production from the renewable and inexpensive substrates, for example, lignocellulose, on account of the depletion of oil resources, increasing gasoline prices and deteriorating environment. Renewed attention has been paid to butanol production on account of the depletion of oil resources and increasing gasoline prices. With the rising price of these substrate materials, the feedstock cost has become a major factor determining the total economics of the ABE fermentation industry [2]. The cost of cellulase used to hydrolyze the cellulose fraction of biomass has made these attempts economically uncompetitive, in respect that solventogenic clostridia are not able to utilize lignocellulose as a raw material directly [9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
