REACTIF

The production of n-butanol from fermentation of sugar using Clostridia has tremendous industrial potential (n-butanol is an important chemical intermediate for paints plastics, coatings and polymers). Butanol production via fermentation is sustainable, environmentally friendly and offers a lower cost route than chemical synthesis from oil. However, the conventional fermentation route using Clostridia suffers from low titres and volumetric productivities and a reliance on expensive (and edible) starch-based feedstocks. Commercial implementation requires novel strains with improved fermentation performance and strains capable of fermenting non-food, cellulosic feedstocks.

Our aim is to develop advanced Clostridia strains. Specific deliverables include:-

1) identification and characterisation of alleles (genes) responsible for the desired tolerance traits, using genomic approaches, both in historical strains that were used commercially over four decades and in current production strains following the implementation of novel directed evolution strategies;
2) transfer of the identified alleles into current, robust production strains, together with rational metabolic engineering to improve product titres;
3) assessment of strain(s) performance on cellulosic feedstocks at lab and pilot scale.