Pervaporative Butanol Fermentation Using a New Bacterial Strain

Fermentation processes for the production of butanol had an economic importance in the first part of this century. Today butanol is commercially produced from the Oxo reaction of propylene because relatively low priced propylene during the cracking of petroleum. Efforts have been made during the past decade or two to improve the productivity of butanol fermentation processes. It includes strain improvements, continuous fermentation processes, cell immobilization and simultaneous product separation. This review introduces a new butanol fermentation process using pervaporative product separation and a new bacterial strain producing less amount of organic acids. This review also compares the new process with chemical processes. This kind of new fermentation process may be able to compete with the chemical synthesis of butanol and revitalize the butanol fermentation process.