Efficient acetone-butanol-ethanol production (ABE) by Clostridium acetobutylicum XY16 immobilized on chemically modified sugarcane bagasse

Sugarcane bagasse was chemically modified by polyethylenimine (PEI) and glutaraldehyde (GA) and then used as a support to immobilize Clostridium acetobutylicum XY16 in the process of butanol production. Compared with batch fermentation using unmodified sugarcane bagasse, 22.3 g/L total solvents were produced by cells immobilized on 4 g/L PEI treated sugarcane bagasse with high solvent productivity of 0.62 g/(L h) and glucose consumption rate of 1.67 g/(L h). Improvement of 14, 43, and 37 % in total solvent titer, solvent productivity and glucose consumption rate was observed, respectively. Enhanced solvent production of 25.14 g/L was obtained when using a high concentration of glucose of 80 g/L. Continuous fermentation was studied using PEI/GA modified sugarcane bagasse as immobilization support with a range of dilution which rates from 0.2 to 2.5 to find an optimal condition. The maximum solvent productivity of 11.32 g/(L h) was obtained at a high dilution rate of 2.0 h^-1.