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Production of 2,3-butanediol from corncob molasses, a waste by-product in xylitol production

  • Biotechnological Products and Process Engineering
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Abstract

Corncob molasses, a waste by-product in xylitol production, contains high concentrations of mixed sugars. In the present study, corncob molasses was used to produce 2,3-butanediol (BD) using Klebsiella pneumoniae SDM. This was the first report on the use of corncob molasses to produce bulk chemicals. Our results indicated that K. pneumoniae SDM can utilize various sugars contained in the corncob molasses in a preferential manner: glucose > arabinose > xylose. It was shown that high sugars concentration had an inhibitory effect on the cells growth and BD production. The maximum concentration of BD was 78.9 g/l after 61 h of fed-batch fermentation, giving a BD productivity of 1.3 g/l h and a yield of 81.4%. The present study suggests that the low-cost corncob molasses could be used as an alternative substrate for the production of BD by K. pneumoniae SDM, as well as a potential carbon source for production of other high-value chemicals.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Chinese National Program for High-Technology Research and Development (No. 2006AA02Z244), the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (No. 30770064) and the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2007CB707803).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, People’s Republic of China

    Ailong Wang, Yu Wang, Tianyi Jiang, Lixiang Li & Cuiqing Ma

  2. MOE Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China

    Ping Xu

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  1. Ailong Wang
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  2. Yu Wang
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  3. Tianyi Jiang
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  4. Lixiang Li
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Correspondence to Cuiqing Ma.

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Wang, A., Wang, Y., Jiang, T. et al. Production of 2,3-butanediol from corncob molasses, a waste by-product in xylitol production. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 87, 965–970 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2557-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2557-8

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