Summary
In cooperation with the company Copersucar (Brazil), several variants of a fermentation system for the continuous production of butanol and acetone from high-test or invert molasses were developed. These fermentation systems involve a relatively economic batch fermentation requiring little investment, using a continuous culture as the inoculation culture, as well as a modern two-stage continuous culture with cell recycling. For example, 13.3 g·1−1 of solvent (acetone and butanol) are produced with a productivity of 3.3 g·1−1 ·h−1 by two-stage continuous molasses fermentation with cell recycling in the second stage. High-test molasses is converted completely into the products. Butanol and acetone production from molasses is economic in Brazil and the construction of a production plant is planned.
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Afschar, A.S., Vaz Rossell, C.E. & Schaller, K. Bacterial conversion of molasses to acetone and butanol. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 34, 168–171 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166774
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166774