Characteristic study and process optimisation of fermentation and butanol production of the Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052

Abstract

Increasing demands of biofuel as consequence effect from global warming and unstableforecast on the remaining quantity off traditional fossil fuel gradually expended the researches and thefacilities of biofuel for last decades. However current model for the sustainable production of biofuelis mainly relied on the crop resources. This model came out in serious problem for last 5 years that itcould not be sustainable in harsh climate. Decreased yield of crops resulted in increasing prices ofcrops and blocking trades of food resources between countries. This would be major flaw onsustainable model for the biofuel that production level would be affected and crop resources are notonly used for biofuel but it’s the number one strategic resource ? the food. To overcome this issue, many research teams around world devote to find out alternativesolutions for the biofuel. One of idea is microorganism fermentation. Clostridial fermentation iscommonly studied, that it could produce stable amount of biofuel and most importantly, they couldyield the biofuel with not only from crops and crop originated sugar but many different alternativecarbon sources. Clostridium beijerinckii NCINB 8052 is promising microorganism which can convert biofuelespecially butanol from various carbon source. Butanol is the product that C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 predominantly produces, and easily adoptable on internal combustion engine that currently used. It has some remaining objectives that researchers should be archived. One of it is lowtolerance of butanol, the main product of C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 itself. For overcome this, thereare several study performed such as fermentation structural approaching or genomic modification forthe tolerance. On here, fermentation study of C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 was performed to identifyingcharacteristic and performances of growth of culture and rate of biofuel production. For this,comparison study between media that precedent studies used also performed. Alternative carbonsource fermentation also one of key point of C. beijerinckii NCINB 8052. In this study, enzymaticallyhydrolysed wood waste solution supplied by Dr. Lee, Jinhyung’s lab in KICET was chosen for theevaluating the fermentation process. And finally, two-phase stimulated extraction which based onoleyl alcohol was tested for enhance the fermentation and yield of butanol. This process doesn’trequire the complex devices or concentrated effort, but effectively absorbed the butanol from cultureto enhance the growth and the biofuel production of C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052.