Butanol production from lignocellulosic sugars by Clostridium beijerinckii in microbioreactors

Butanol (n-butanol) has been gaining attention as a renewable energy carrier and an alternative biofuel with superior properties to the most widely used ethanol. We performed 48 anaerobic fermentations simultaneously with glucose and xylose as representative lignocellulosic sugars by Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 in BioLector® microbioreactors to understand the effect of different sugar mixtures on fermentation and to demonstrate the applicability of the micro-cultivation system for high-throughput anaerobic cultivation studies. We then compared the results to those of similar cultures in serum flasks to provide insight into different setups and measurement methods.

ANOVA results showed that the glucose-to-xylose ratio affects both growth and production due to Carbon Catabolite Repression. The study demonstrated successful use of BioLector® system for the first time for screening several media and sugar compositions under anaerobic conditions by using online monitoring of cell mass and pH in real-time and at unprecedented time-resolution. Fermentation products possibly interfered with dissolved oxygen (DO) measurements, which require a careful interpretation of DO monitoring results.

The statistical approach to evaluate the microbioreactor setup, and information obtained in this study will support further research in bioreactor and bioprocess design, which are very important aspects of industrial fermentations of lignocellulosic biomass.