The influence of H2, CO2 and dilution rate on the continuous fermentation of acetone-butanol

SummaryThe effect of product gases, H2 and CO2, on solvent production was studied using a continuous culture of alginate-immobilized Clostridium acetobutylicum. Initially, in order to find the optimum dilution rate for aceton--butanol production in this system, fermentations were carried out at various dilution rates. With 10% H2 and 10% CO2 in the sparging gas, a dilution rate of 0.07 h−1 was found to maximize volumetric productivity (0.58 g·l−1·h−1), while the maximum specific productivity of 0.27 g−·h−1 occured at 0.12 h−1. Continuous cultures with vigorous sparging of N2 produced only acids. It was concluded that in the case of continuous fermentation H2 is essential for good solvent production, although good solvent production is possible in an H2-absent environment in the case of batch fermentations. When the fermentation was carried out at atmospheric pressure under H2-enriched conditions, the presence of CO2 in the sparging gas did not slow down glucose metabolism; rather it changed the direction of the phosphoroclastic reaction and as a result increased the butanol/acetone ratio.