Waste-to-energy: biobutanol production from cellulosic residue of sweet potato by Clostridia acetobutylicum

Abstract

Biobutanol has been emerging as a renewable replacement to overcome fossil fuel limit due to its attractive qualities. The waste resources utilization is an economically feasible and eco-friendly way to produce biobutanol. In this work, the potential of butanol fermentation with sweet potato residue (SPR) obtained from ethanol fermentation was evaluated. To assist sugar release for butanol production by Clostridia acetobutylicum, a pretreatment approach with dilute sulfuric acid was established via response surface methodology. The maximum butanol concentration of 3.77 g/L was obtained at the optimal conditions of pretreatment at 1% (v/v) dilute sulfuric acid, and 115℃ for 30 min. Detoxifying the hydrolysate with XAD-4 resin significantly enhanced butanol fermentation performance, while adding nutritional supplements had no significant influence. The stability of the fermentation process was verified by the 2 L-scale of fermentation, resulting in 7.96 g/L of butanol, 13.42 g/L h of Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE), and 0.34 g/g of ABE yield, respectively. This study demonstrates a bio-refinery strategy of conversion from waste biomass to energy, confirms the feasibility of utilizing the cost saving SPR as feedstock to produce butanol through fermentation, and provides a novel approach for minimization of environmental pollution.