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US 4,539,293 AGranted
Production of butanol by fermentation in the presence of cocultures of clostridium
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
InventorsSheryl L. Bergstrom, Gary L. Foutch
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Sugars are converted to a mixture of solvents including butanol by a fermentation process employing a coculture of microorganisms of the Clostridium genus, one of said microorganisms favoring the production of butyric acid and the other of which converts the butyric acid so produced to butanol. The use of a coculture substantially increases the yield of butanol over that obtained using a culture employing only one microorganism.
Claims4
A process for the production of butanol from sugar comprising the steps of:
- mixing sugar with a coculture of a species of Clostridium pasteurianum and a species of Clostridium butylicum;
- fermenting the sugar with the coculture to produce an organic solvent mixture containing butanol in which the amount of butanol is increased by at least 20 percent as compared to a fermentation process using Clostridium butylicum, and
- recovering the butanol.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.