Butanol production from renewable biomass: Rediscovery of metabolic pathways and metabolic engineering

Abstract

Biofuel from renewable biomass is one of the answers to help solve the problems associated with limited fossil resources and climate change. Butanol has superior liquid-fuel characteristics, with similar properties to gasoline, and thus, has the potential to be used as a substitute for gasoline. Clostridia are recognized as a good butanol producers and are employed in the industrial-scale production of solvents. Due to the difficulty of performing genetic manipulations on clostridia, however, strain improvement has been rather slow. Furthermore, complex metabolic characteristics of acidogenesis followed by solventogenesis in this strain have hampered the development of engineered clostridia strains with highly efficient and selective butanol-production capabilities. In recent years, the butanol-producing characteristics in clostridia have been further characterized and alternative pathways discovered. More recently, systems-level metabolic engineering approaches were taken to develop superior strains. Herein, we review recent discoveries of metabolic pathways for butanol production and the metabolic engineering strategies being developed.

Advances in consolidated bioprocessing systems for bioethanol and butanol production from biomass: a comprehensive review

“…Difficulty of performing genetic manipulations and complexity of the acidogenesis and solventogenesis metabolic pathways are the major obstacles during development of engineered clostridia for efficient and selective butanolproduction capabilities. Recently, metabolic pathways of butanol production and also metabolic engineering approaches have been characterized in clostridia, and have opened new doors to scientists to develop new engineered strains with efficient butanol production capabilities (Gheshlaghi et al, 2009;Jang et al, 2012;Wen et al, 2014a, b). In the following sub-sections, the recent recombinant strategies used for enhancing CBP butanol production are discussed.…”

Richtwerte für 1-Butanol in der Innenraumluft

“…Die großtechnische Herstellung aus erneuerbaren Rohstoffen, insbesondere Polysacchariden, aber auch aus Propantriol als Abfallprodukt der Synthese von Fettsäuremethylestern aus Triglyceriden, mithilfe von Mikroorganismen wird derzeit intensiv diskutiert. Auf diese Weise hergestelltes "Biobutanol" soll statt Ethanol als Treibstoffzusatz Verwendung finden [5]. Die Hauptmenge an 1-Butanol wird jedoch gegenwärtig großtechnisch durch Hydroformylierung von Propen, Kohlenstoffmonoxid und Wasserstoff zu Butanal und nachfolgende Reduktion des Aldehyds mit Wasserstoff hergestellt [1,2].…”

Optimization of Biobutanol Production from Poplar Wood Hydrolysate using a Mutant of Clostridium saccharobutylicum

“…It contains a high energy density, has less volatility and hygroscopicity, is less corrosive, and it can be used in current combustion engines without any modifications. Also, biobutanol can be fully dissolved in gasoline with arbitrary proportion (Jang et al 2012;Gottumukkala et al 2013). Biobutanol can be produced through the acetone-butanolethanol (ABE) fermentation using solventogenic Clostridium strains.…”