Biobutanol production from Acid Fermented Solution of Food Waste using Clostridium sp.

In Korea, more than five million tons of food waste is generated per year by restaurants and households.Owing to the increasing environmental issues, utilization of food waste has gained much attention for its potential in producing industrially important chemicals.Several researchers have investigated the use of acid fermentation processes for biogas production to effectively utilize food waste.Organic acids are one of the main components of the food waste acid fermentation process; these can be converted to alcohols, such as ethanol and butanol.Here, we produced butanol from organic acids using Clostridium beijerinckii, which is the most suitable among the five Clostridia strains tested.Organic acids at various concentrations were tested to optimize butanol production; 10.41 g/L of butanol was produced from a mixed carbon source containing 10 g/L butyric acid and 5 g/L acetic acid.We also produced butanol using the Clostridium sp. and an acid fermented solution of food waste as the secondary carbon source.Up to 10.65 g/L of butanol was produced using these mixed carbon sources, which contained 30 g/L of glucose, 10.15 g/L of butyric acid, and 5.01 g/L of acetic acid.