ACETONE-BUTANOL FERMENTATION - BASIS OF A MODERN BIOTECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS

Acetone-butanol fermentation was performed on a large industrial scale for about forty years. After the Second World War it was unable to compete with petrochemical processes and renewed interest in this fermentation has developed only during the last decade. It has led to a vast increase of our knowledge of the biochemistry of acetone-butanol formation and of the genetics of the producing organism, Clostridium acetobutylicum. Considerable progress was also made in defining optimal fermentation conditions. However, the biotechnological process is not yet economically feasible, primarily because low final product concentrations engender high product recovery costs.