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Enhanced butanol production in a microbial electrolysis cell by Clostridium beijerinckii IB4

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Abstract

Reducing power such as NADH is an essential factor for acetone/butanol/ethanol (ABE) fermentation using Clostridium spp. The objective of this study was to increase available NADH in Clostridium beijerinckii IB4 by a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) with an electron carrier to enhance butanol production. First of all, a MEC was performed without electron carrier to study the function of cathodic potential applying. Then, various electron carriers were tested, and neutral red (NR)-amended cultures showed an increase of butanol concentration. Optimal NR concentration (0.1 mM) was used to add in a MEC. Electricity stimulated the cell growth obviously and dramatically diminished the fermentation time from 40 to 28 h. NR and electrically reduced NR improved the final butanol concentration and inhibited the acetone generation. In the MEC with NR, the butanol concentration, yield, proportion and productivity were increased by 12.2, 17.4, 7.2 and 60.3 %, respectively. To further understand the mechanisms of NR, cathodic potential applying and electrically reduced NR, NADH and NAD+ levels, ATP levels and hydrogen production were determined. NR and electrically reduced NR also improved ATP levels and the ratio of NADH/NAD+, whereas they decreased hydrogen production. Thus, the MEC is an efficient method for enhancing the butanol production.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the “973” Program of China (Grant No. 2011CB707405), a Project Supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (Grant NO. 06-A-047), Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation for Youth (BK20140940), Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation (BK20151532), Jiangsu Key Lab of Biomass-based Green Fuels and Chemicals Foundation.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Puzhu South Road 30#, 211816, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

      Ai-Yong He, Chun-Yan Yin, Hao Xu, Xiang-Ping Kong, Jia-Wei Xue, Jing Zhu, Min Jiang & Hao Wu

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    1. Ai-Yong He
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    2. Chun-Yan Yin
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    3. Hao Xu
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    7. Min Jiang
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    Correspondence to Min Jiang or Hao Wu.

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    A.-Y. He and C.-Y. Yin contributed equally to this work.

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    449_2015_1508_MOESM1_ESM.tif

    Fig.S1 The cyclic voltammetry (CV) curve of ENR (0.1 mM NR) system at a scan rate of 20 mV/s over the range −300 to −1 mV during the batch adaptation of C. beijerinckii IB4 114 x 95 mm (96 x 96 DPI) (TIFF 127 kb)

    Fig.S2 The schematic of the microbial electrolysis system. 170 x 138 mm (96 x 96 DPI) (TIFF 95 kb)

    Fig. S3 The cyclic mechanism of determination of intracellular NAD+ and NADH 142 × 33 mm (96 x 96 DPI) (TIFF 30 kb)

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    He, AY., Yin, CY., Xu, H. et al. Enhanced butanol production in a microbial electrolysis cell by Clostridium beijerinckii IB4. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 39, 245–254 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-015-1508-2

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