The effect of some culture maintenance and inoculum development techniques on solvent production by Clostridium acetobutylicum

An investigation was made into some methods of culture maintenance and inoculum development procedures by which the production of solvents by Clostridium acetobutylicum could be maximized. Storage of the organism as spores in nonnutrient media at either 4 or −20 °C proved to be the most effective method of culture maintenance. On revival of stock cultures, neither heat shocking nor treatment with aqueous ethanol or butanol gave improvements in solvent production during the subsequent fermentation. However, significantly improved production was obtained when culture transfers during the inoculum development procedure were made at the time of maximum cell motility.