Mutagenesis of Novel Clostridial fusants for Enhanced Green Biobutanol Production from Agriculture Waste

Abstract

In an earlier investigation, novel Clostridial fusants were introduced and demonstrated an ability to produce biobutanol at the relatively high temperature of 45 °C. The objective of the present study is to further improve the fused strains through examining the impact of mutation agents on their stability, tolerance to biobutanol toxicity and biofuel production capability. The results for the mutated strains showed enhanced resistance to biobutanol by the fused strains and better biobutanol generation by cells. Furthermore, the results showed high biobutanol production (14.7–15 g/L), with a total Acetone, Biobutanol and Ethanol (ABE) yield of 0.6 g/g. Moreover, mutated strains showed tolerance to biobutanol toxicity up to 15 g/L, which is equivalent to a ~15% increase over literature values. The oxygen tolerance study showed improved performance by the mutated anaerobic fusant. In general, the mutation of fused clostridium strains using UV and EMS leads to the identification of stronger robust strains that show higher tolerance to oxygen and biobutanol toxicity and achieved higher yield.