(47d) Process Engineering of Clostridium Cellulovorans for Butanol Production from Biomass

Clostridium cellulovorans can utilize a wild range of low-value lignocellulosic biomass as substrates because of its efficient cellulosome complex. The objective of this study was to achieve a robust lignocellulosic butanol production using metabolically engineered C. cellulovorans mutant by the process engineering of consolidated bioprocessing (CBP). The metabolomics was used to create an intracellular metabolite profiling of C. cellulovorans and analyze the interaction between cellular metabolism and fermentation process parameters. The bioreactor operation parameters and fed-batch process parameters were specifically analyzed. The changes in core metabolites responsible for carbon, energy and redox balance at different fermentation conditions were identified. The CBP was engineered by optimizing the seeding density, pH, cellulose feeding and trace element. The butanol production was improved to titer of >3 g/L and selectivity of > 0.4 g/g from cellulose. The direct fermentation of corn cob generated butanol titer of > 1.5 g/L.