Production of Butyric Acid from Glucose and Xylose with Immobilized Cells of Clostridium tyrobutyricum in a Fibrous-bed Bioreactor

Abstract

Butyric acid has many applications in chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries. In the present study, Clostridium tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755 was immobilized in a fibrous-bed bioreactor to evaluate the performance of butyrate production from glucose and xylose. The results showed that the final concentration and yield of butyric acid were 13.70 and 0.46 g g(-1), respectively, in batch fermentation when 30 g L(-1) glucose was introduced into the bioreactor. Furthermore, high concentration 10.10 g L(-1) and yield 0.40 g g(-1) of butyric acid were obtained with 25 g L(-1) xylose as the carbon source. The immobilized cells of C. tyrobutyricum ensured similar productivity and yield from repeated batch fermentation. In the fed-batch fermentation, the final concentration of butyric acid was further improved to 24.88 g L(-1) with one suitable glucose feeding in the fibrous-bed bioreactor. C. tyrobutyricum immobilized in the fibrous-bed bioreactor would provide an economically viable fermentation process to convert the reducing sugars derived from plant biomass into the final bulk chemical (butyric acid).

The Future of Butyric Acid in Industry

“…However, fibrous bed bioreactors (FBBs) seem to be less affected by this phenomenon as compared to other systems and can maintain their productivity over a longer period of time if the operative conditions are carefully controlled [54]. This is attributed to their large void volume and high permeability, which give them regenerative ability and high mass transfer capabilities [20]. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that FBBs have been successfully used by different research groups to produce butyric acid [20, 33, 55, 56].…”

“…This is attributed to their large void volume and high permeability, which give them regenerative ability and high mass transfer capabilities [20]. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that FBBs have been successfully used by different research groups to produce butyric acid [20, 33, 55, 56]. …”

Butyric acid production from red algae by a newly isolated Clostridium sp. S1

“…S1 produced butyric acid and a very small amount of acetic acid with the butyrate:acetate ratio of 45.4:1 (Table 1). Clostridial butyric acid producers typically generate a certain amount of acetic acid with the butyrate:acetate ratio of 1.9:1-28.9:1 from glucose or xylose (Huang et al 2011;Jiang et al 2010;Wei et al 2013). Considering that metabolic engineering was applied in the previous study to reduce acetic acid production HMF (0 g/l) HMF (0.6 g/l) HMF (1.2 g/l) HMF (2.5 g/l) HMF conversion product (0 g/l) HMF conversion product (0.6 g/l) HMF conversion product (1.2 g/l) HMF conversion product (2.5 g/l) Fig.…”

Control and Optimization of Clostridium tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755 Adhesion into Fibrous Matrix in a Fibrous Bed Bioreactor

“…Details about the conventional bioreactor setup have been given elsewhere [21]. When the glucose concentration in the fermentation broth decreased to zero, the cells in the fibrous matrix were washed off by vortexing the cotton towel in sterile potassium phosphate buffer (0.1 M, pH 6.0) under anaerobic conditions.…”