Clostridium sp. strain NJ4 was successfully
isolated and characterized, which exhibited a wide carbon utilization
spectrum, including glucose, fructose, fructooligosaccharide, and
Jerusalem artichoke. In comparison to 14.71 and 15.81 g L–1 butanol produced from glucose and fructose, a similar butanol production
was obtained by strain NJ4 from fructooligosaccharide and Jerusalem
artichoke without supplementation of exogenous inulinases, owing to
its efficient expression of levanase and fructan β-fructosidase.
After the process optimization, 13.25 g L–1 butanol
was directly produced from 90 g L–1 Jerusalem artichoke,
indicating that strain NJ4 could be a promising candidate for butanol
production from Jerusalem artichoke through consolidated bioprocessing
(CBP) at a large scale. In addition, extra supplementation of sodium
butyrate could improve butanol and acetone–butanol–ethanol
titers to 14.35 and 24.75 g L–1. To the best of
our knowledge, this represents the highest butanol production from
Jerusalem artichoke through CBP.