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Acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation of corn stover by Clostridium species: present status and future perspectives

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Abstract

Sustainable vehicle fuel is indispensable in future due to worldwide depletion of fossil fuel reserve, oil price fluctuation and environmental degradation. Microbial production of butanol from renewable biomass could be one of the possible options. Renewable biomass such as corn stover has no food deficiency issues and is also cheaper in most of the agricultural based countries. Thus it can effectively solve the existing issue of substrate cost. In the last 30 years, a few of Clostridium strains have been successfully implemented for biobutanol fermentation. However, the commercial production is hindered due to their poor tolerance to butanol and inhibitors. Metabolic engineering of Clostridia strains is essential to solve above problems and ultimately enhance the solvent production. An effective and efficient pretreatment of raw material as well as optimization of fermentation condition could be another option. Furthermore, biological approaches may be useful to optimize both the host and pathways to maximize butanol production. In this context, this paper reviews the existing Clostridium strains and their ability to produce butanol particularly from corn stover. This study also highlights possible fermentation pathways and biological approaches that may be useful to optimize fermentation pathways. Moreover, challenges and future perspectives are also discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51178136) and the State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology (Grant No. 2013DX11) for valuable financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, 73 Huanghe Road, Harbin, 150090, People’s Republic of China

    Jianzheng Li, Nawa Raj Baral & Ajay Kumar Jha

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Nawa Raj Baral

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  1. Jianzheng Li
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  2. Nawa Raj Baral
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Correspondence to Jianzheng Li.

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Li, J., Baral, N.R. & Jha, A.K. Acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation of corn stover by Clostridium species: present status and future perspectives. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 30, 1145–1157 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-013-1542-7

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