Improvement of butanol fermentation by supplementation of butyric acid produced from a brown alga

This study investigated butanol fermentation using glucose and culture broth containing butyrate from the butyrate fermentation of a brown alga, Laminaria japonica. Prior to the use of the biologically-produced butyrate, the initial glucose in tryptone-yeast extract acetate (TYA) medium was first optimized for butanol fermentation using Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4 ATCC 27021T. Then, a commercially-acquired (synthetic) butyrate was supplemented to the TYA medium containing the optimal glucose concentration (around 30 and 60 g/L). According to the experimental results, the highest butanol carbon yield (0.580 C-mol/C-mol) was obtained from the fermentation of 36.65 g/L glucose and 7.29 g/L synthetic butyrate. Fermentation of a similar amount of glucose (32.28 g/L) in the absence of butyrate gave a butanol carbon yield of 0.402 C-mol/C-mol. For the experiment with fermented butyrate, a 100 g/L biomass of brown alga was fermented by Clostridium tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755 and the culture broth containing butyrate was used to prepare TYA medium after removing the bacterial cells. Fermentation using the synthetic butyrate and the biologically-produced butyrate (4.95 g/L) gave a comparable butanol concentration (13.23 g/L) and butanol carbon yield (0.513 C-mol/C-mol). Overall, this study proved that the addition of fermented butyrate from brown alga fermentation could be an effective way to improve butanol production. Furthermore, the reuse of spent medium and the absence of rigorous purification of the broth containing butyrate would lower the production cost of the fermentation.