Evaluation of recycling the effluent of hydrogen fermentation for biobutanol production: Kinetic study with butyrate and sucrose concentrations

• Butyrate in the effluent of hydrogen fermentation is a potential feed for biobutanol production.
• Existence of butyrate increases the activity of biobutanol production.
• Butyrate accelerates the metabolic pathway shifting to solventogenesis.
• Butyrate increases the potential of biobutanol production at low sugar level.

Butyrate in the effluent of hydrogen-producing bioreactor is a potential feed for biobutanol production. For recycling butyrate, this study investigated the kinetics of biobutanol production by Clostridium beijerinckii NRRL B592 from different paired concentrations of butyrate and sucrose in a series of batch reactors. Results show that the lag time of butanol production increased with higher concentration of either sucrose or butyrate. In regression analyses, the maximum specific butanol production potential of 6.49 g g−1 of dry cell was projected for 31.9 g L−1 sucrose and 1.3 g L−1 butyrate, and the maximum specific butanol production rate of 0.87 g d−1 g−1 of dry cell was predicted for 25.0 g L−1 sucrose and 2.6 g L−1 butyrate. The specific butanol production potential will decrease if more butyrate is added to the reactor. However, both sucrose and butyrate concentrations are weighted equally on the specific butanol production rate. This observation also is true on butanol yield. The maximum butanol yield of 0.49 mol mol−1 was projected for 25.0 g L−1 sucrose and 2.3 g L−1 butyrate. In addition, a confirmation study found butanol yield increased from 0.2 to 0.3 mol mol−1 when butyrate addition increased from 0 to 1 g L−1 under low sugar concentration (3.8 g L−1 sucrose). The existence of butyrate increases the activity of biobutanol production and reduces the fermentable sugar concentration needed for acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation.