INFLUENCE OF INITIAL CELLULOSE CONCENTRATION ON THE CARBON FLOW DISTRIBUTION DURING BATCH FERMENTATION BY CLOSTRIDIUM THERMOCELLUM ATCC 27405

摘要

C. thermocellum possesses the highest rate of cellulose degradation among all known cellulolytic microorganisms (Lynd et al., 1987; 1989). Many earlier studies of C. thermocellum focused on ethanol production using pure cultures of C. thermocellum with other cellulolytic, thermophilic bacteria utilizing cellulosic biomass (Weimer & Zeikus, 1977; Lamed & Zeikus, 1980; Lynd et al, 1989). Islam et al. (2006) demonstrated the effects of substrate concentration on hydrogen production using cellobiose, a soluble cellodextrin that results from cellulose-hydrolysis by C. thermocellum, but no studies to date have examined the influence of cellulose concentration on end-product synthesis patterns.