Reaction engineering analysis of Clostridium carboxidivorans for autotrophic production of alcohols

Kathrin Doll, doctoral thesis Technical University of Munich, 2018

Clostridium carboxidivorans is able to produce organic acids and alcohols from carbon monoxide in a two-phase process. A continuously operated cascade of two stirred-tank bioreactors was established to overcome the low productivities of standard batch processes. Organic acids produced in the first reactor are continuously converted to ethanol, butanol and hexanol in the second reactor. Space-time yields and alcohol concentrations were thus many times improved compared to the batch process.

Publications

• Riegler P, Chrusciel T, Mayer A, Doll K, Weuster Botz D (2019): Reversible retrofitting of a stirred-tank bioreactor for gas-lift operation to perform syngas fermentation studies. Biochem Eng J 141: 89-101.
• Doll K, Rückel A, Kämpf P, Weuster-Botz D (2018): Two stirred-tank bioreactors in series enable continuous production of alcohols from carbon monoxide with Clostridium carboxidivorans. Bioproc Biosys Eng 41:1403-1416.