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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Bioenergy Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #364248
Research Project: Develop Technologies for Production of Platform Chemicals and Advanced Biofuels from Lignocellulosic Feedstocks

Location: Bioenergy Research

Title: Production of acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) from concentrated yellow top presscake using Clostridium beijerinckii P260

Author
item Qureshi, Nasib
item Saha, Badal
item Liu, Siqing
item Harry O Kuru, Rogers

Submitted to: Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/14/2019
Publication Date: 11/21/2019
Citation: Qureshi, N., Saha, B.C., Liu, S., Harry O Kuru, R.E. 2019. Production of acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) from concentrated yellow top presscake using Clostridium beijerinckii P260. Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology. 95(3):614-620. https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.6242.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.6242

Interpretive Summary: Butanol is a better biofuel than ethanol. It contains 33% more energy as compared to ethanol and burns cleaner thus releasing less soot. Traditionally, this fuel is produced from corn starch (corn), and molasses that are costly (approximately $150 per ton). For this reason, our focus has been to produce it from economically available feedstocks such as agricultural residues (corn stover, wheat straw, barley straw, sweet sorghum bagasse, sugarcane bagasse etc). For the present study we used a new feedstock called Yellow Top (YT) presscake, an economic substrate, for the production of butanol (also known as acetone butanol ethanol, ABE). In this fermentation all three products are produced simultaneously. Currently, YT is used for land fill and causes environmental pollution. To keep the environment clean and produce butanol economically, we employed this low-cost substrate and cutting-edge science and technology. Commercial production of butanol or ABE would benefit YT farmers, transportation industry, gasoline consumers, and the environment.

Technical Abstract: Butanol, a superior biofuel than ethanol, can be produced by fermentation of renewable feedstocks such as Yellow Top (YT). In these studies, we used this feedstock (YT) at high concentration (80-150 gL-1). At a concentration of 125 gL-1 YT, the culture produced 28.8 gL-1 acetone butanol ethanol (ABE) as compared to 18.68 gL-1 using glucose (control) as substrate which is 154 % of the control fermentation. The control fermentation resulted in a productivity of 0.42 gL-1h-1 while YT resulted in a productivity of 0.70 gL-1h-1. In YT fermentation, specific ABE productivity was 543% of that obtained in the control run. A YT concentration of 125 gL-1 is beneficial for ABE fermentation. Although cell growth was inhibited, it was in the favor of improved process economics. At this concentration of YT (125 gL-1), ABE production level, productivity, and specific productivity were greatly enhanced.