Recently there is a renewed interest on butanol production by using anaerobic Clostridia which can produce acetone butanol and ethanol with a ratio of 3:6:1 during the so-called ABE fermentation. However they are still many remaining challenges to use Clostridia for producing butanol. These challenges include acid crash due to excess acid production in the exponential growth phase degeneration of solvent producing capability due to repeated sub-culturing sporulation during solvent production and solvent intolerance. This technology relates to a novel process whereby a high concentration of butanol (>100mM) and acetone (60 mM) can be produced from 30 g/L of xylose. In addition xylan can be directly fermented to produce butanol and acetone without producing ethanol. This feature will significantly lower the separation and purification cost of the most valuable product butanol. Technology Features: 1) This process can produce more than 100mM of butanol from 30g/L of xylose 2) Xylan a difficult substrate which cannot be fermented by yeast can be used in this process 3) The enzyme used in the process is highly robust and suitable for industrial applications Applications: Production of biobutanol Patent: Patent Pending Opportunity: 1) Licensing 2) Partnership for future development
1) Xylan can be utilized at high yield without pretreatment 2) Fewer purification steps required as no ethanol is produced 3) Higher solvent tolerance compared to conventional enzymes used