Direct fermentation of Citrus Fruit Waste by Clostridium Acetobutylicum for Production of Butanol

Abstract

Butanol has been considered as a potential fuel or fuel additive and an alternate to Ethanol addition to fuel. Single-culture Clostridial fermentation was conducted to obtain Butanol from Citrus fruit waste as a low cost feedstock. Different inoculum concentrations and different nitrogen source were utilized for the fermentation. The fermentation resulted in 2.4. gm/l of butanol when only glucose was used as carbon source while production of Butanol increased to 3.01gm/l when orange pulp and peel was utilized. To further increase the production, low cost raw material like soyabean powder and animal waste were also used which resulted in 8gm/L of Butanol production.

Keywords: Biofuels; Butanol; Citrus; Clostridium; Fermentation