Bio-butanol Production by Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4 using Selected Species of Brown and Red Macroalgae

Macroalgae are a promising option because they can be propagated easily along the seaside thus eliminating the need for land and nutrient resources. Hence, different macroalgae were assessed fortheir potential in butanol fermentation. In this study, four species of brown macroalgae (Undaria pinnatifida, Laminaria japonica, Ecklonia stolonifera, Hizikia fusiforme, and Sargassum fulvellum) and two species of red macroalgae (Porphyra tenera and Gelidium amansii) were investigated for theproduction of butanol by Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4. To hydrolyze the polymeric materials of the algal biomass, dilute acid hydrolysis was carried out using 0.15 M H2SO4 followed bythermal pretreatment at 121°C for 1 h. Using 100 g/L of hydrolyzed brown alga, the highest butanol production (5.51 g/L) was observed for L. japonica. Other brown and red macroalgae did not exceedthe butanol production by L. japonica. Moreover, the detoxification of the thermo-chemically pretreated hydrolysate of L. japonica using the activated carbon and overliming method, increased thebutanol production by 24.14 and 12.16%, respectively. These results showed that macroalgae could be a promising substrate for butanol fermentation that is cheap, easily propagated, and non-terrestrial and non-food competing.

Keywords:

Activated carbon , Butanol fermentation , C. saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4 , Macroalgae , Overliming ,