Abstract
In this study, an efficient acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation strategy integrating Clostridium acetobutylicum/Saccharomyces cerevisiae co-culturing system with exogenous butyrate addition, was proposed and experimentally conducted. In solventogenic phase, by adding 0.2 g-DCW/L-broth viable S. cerevisiae cells and 4.0 g/L-broth concentrated butyrate solution into C. acetobutylicum culture broth, final butanol concentration and butanol/acetone ratio in a 7 L anaerobic fermentor reached the highest levels of 15.74 g/L and 2.83 respectively, with the increments of 35% and 43% as compared with those of control. Theoretical and experimental analysis revealed that, the proposed strategy could, 1) extensively induce secretion of amino acids particularly lysine, which are favorable for both C. acetobutylicum survival and butanol synthesis under high butanol concentration environment; 2) enhance the utilization ability of C. acetobutylicum on glucose and over-produce intracellular NADH for butanol synthesis in C. acetobutylicum metabolism simultaneously; 3) direct most of extra consumed glucose into butanol synthesis route. The synergetic actions of effective amino acids assimilation, high rates of substrate consumption and NADH regeneration yielded highest butanol concentration and butanol ratio in C. acetobutylicum under this stress environment. The proposed method supplies an alternative way to improve ABE fermentation performance by traditional fermentation technology.