Butanol and acetone can be produced by Clostridium acetobutylicum, called ABE fermentation. They are bulk chemicals of major industrial importance, and butanol is also a superior fuel. Currently, this value-added fermentation is more attractive for economic and environmental reasons.
This project is investigating metabolic pathways, regulatory systems and fermentation characters of Clostridium acetobutylicum by using techniques of bioinformatics, molecular biology and metabolic engineering, in order to improve the abilities of the strain for producing solvents and for utilizing low-cost substrates. The research is based on strain Clostridium acetobutylicum EA 2018，which was isolated by our laboratory and has higher butanol productivity. The collaboration with enterprises will be established for enlarging fermentation scale and following up industrialization.

For investigating metabolic pathways, regulatory systems and fermentation characters of solvent producing Clostridium acetobutylicum, the system of genetic manipulation and the method of metabolic intermediate analysis will be established. It is expected that several genes related to butanol production will be identified and modified, DNA microarray and proteome of C. acetobutylicum will be analyzed and some key genes will be marked, engineered strain with better solvent productivity and lower fermentation cost will be constructed. By collaboration with enterprises, this research will increase the fermentation scale and accelerate industrialization of biobutanol.