Reviving the Weizmann process for commercial n-butanol production

Nguyen, Ngoc Phuong Thao; Raynaud, C�line; Meynial-Salles, Isabelle; Soucaille, Philippe

Abstract

© 2018, The Author(s). Developing a commercial process for the biological production of n-butanol is challenging as it needs to combine high titer, yield, and productivities. Here we engineer Clostridium acetobutylicum to stably and continuously produce n-butanol on a mineral media with glucose as sole carbon source. We further design a continuous process for fermentation of high concentration glucose syrup using in situ extraction of alcohols by distillation under low pressure and high cell density cultures to increase the titer, yield, and productivity of n-butanol production to the level of 550 g/L, 0.35 g/g, and 14 g/L/hr, respectively. This process provides a mean to produce n-butanol at performance levels comparable to that of corn wet milling ethanol plants using yeast as a biocatalyst. It may hold the potential to be scaled-up at pilot and industrial levels for the commercial production of n-butanol.

Citation

Nguyen, N. P. T., Raynaud, C., Meynial-Salles, I., & Soucaille, P. (2018). Reviving the Weizmann process for commercial n-butanol production. Nature Communications, 9, Article 3682. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05661-z

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 11, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Sep 11, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 15, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 15, 2020
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Electronic ISSN: 2041-1723
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Article Number: 3682
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05661-z
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3164279
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05661-z