A novel approach for biobutanol production by Clostridium acetobutylicum using glycerol: A low cost substrate

The interest in microbial production of butanol is based on the awareness that biobutanol is one of the most promising biofuels, with the potential to meet the demand of sustainable and green energy systems. The high cost of petroleum oil and recent reports on increase in the glycerol generation during the biodiesel production has created a need to convert large quantities of glycerol into value-added products. In the present investigation, twenty anaerobic bacteria were screened for butanol production, among which Clostridium acetobutylicum KF158795 was found to be a potent butanol producer. Results showed that the strain was able to utilize glycerol as a sole carbon source to produce 1.4 g/L of butanol in 96 h. Optimization of the parameters resulted in 9.7 fold increase in the production and 13.57 g/L of butanol was obtained in 96 h of incubation. The process was also scaled up to 17 L in a 30 L bioreactor with similar titres. The present study suggests that the selected strain could be used as a promising agent to fulfil the worldwide demand of butanol as biofuel.