Biofilm immobilization of Clostridium acetobutylicum on particulate carriers for acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) production

Biofilm immobilization of Clostridium acetobutylicum CICC 8012 on active carbon, bagasse and bricks was carried out for ABE production. The cells could be well immobilized on surface of the carriers to form the biofilm and the sugarcane bagasse exhibited ‘bamboo node’ structure with bacillus migrating from one ‘bamboo node’ to another. Obvious higher cell concentration than that in free cell fermentation was achieved. Different fermentation performances were observed with those three cell immobilization carriers. The best fermentation performance was achieved in the case of with bagasse as the carrier, in which 10.21 g/L of total solvents concentration (5.8 g/L of butanol), 0.42 g/g of yield and 0.32 g/L/h of productivity has been obtained. Compared with free cell fermentation, butanol concentration, butanol yield and butanol productivity were increased by 2.47%, 41.7% and 66.7%, respectively. The results indicated that enhanced ABE fermentation was accomplished with bagasse as cell immobilization carrier.