Mutagenesis of novel clostridial fusants for enhanced green biobutanol production using renewable and sustainable feedstock

Biobutanol was produced in the present work through Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) of cellulosic feedstock (i.e. wheat straw (WS)) and algal biomass. Novel Clostridial fused strains developed earlier underwent mutagenesis for strain enhancement using UV and chemical mutagen (ethyl methanesulphonate). Results for mutated strains showed higher biobutanol production of 14.6 g/L, with total acetone, biobutanol and ethanol (ABE) yield of 0.6 g/g. Moreover, mutated strains showed tolerance to biobutanol toxicity at 15g/L; ~15% increase over literature values. Algal biomass was pre-treated using different thermal, chemical and enzymatic pre-treatments to define its biobutanol production potential compared to WS. A total sugar concentration of 26.4 g/L and glucose concentration of 12.48 g/L was obtained with enzymatic pre-treatment. Biobutanol production through SSF of algal biomass showed maximum concentration of biobutanol of 7.52 g/L with a total ABE yield of 0.48 g/g.