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Table 1 Summary of main challenges and solutions for fermentative butanol production

From: Butanol production from lignocellulosic biomass: revisiting fermentation performance indicators with exploratory data analysis

Challenge

Suggested solution

High substrate cost

Lignocellulosic substrates [3, 12,13,14,15, 18, 23, 29, 31,32,33,34,35]

Starch based waste [12, 29, 33]

Syngas [12, 23, 24, 33, 35]

Macroalgae [12, 16, 23]

Crude glycerol [12, 23, 24, 31]

Protein waste [23]

Whey permeate [14, 29, 34]

Economical feedstock processing methods [3, 18, 29]

Medium optimization [18, 28]

Inulin [31]

Low butanol selectivity

Metabolic engineering for disruption of the pathway for acetone [3, 13,14,15, 23, 25, 27, 32, 34]

Homo-butanol fermentation via chemical mutagenesis and metabolic engineering [23, 24, 33, 35]

Conversion of acetone into isopropanol [13, 15, 23]

Decoupling sporulation from solventogenesis [3, 13, 14, 23, 25, 27, 28, 34, 35]

Low butanol titer

Metabolic engineering and mutagenesis for higher butanol tolerance [13,14,15, 21, 23,24,25, 27, 28, 32,33,34,35]

In situ product removal [3, 12,13,14,15, 18, 22, 23, 27, 28, 32, 34, 35]

Introducing butanol pathways in other hosts [3, 13, 15, 21, 23,24,25, 27, 33,34,35]

Re-enforcing hot channel for butanol formation [14]

Low butanol yield

Simultaneous utilization of mixed sugars in the hydrolysate without Carbon Catabolite Repression [14, 23, 31]

Extending the substrate utilization range [15, 34, 35]

Low butanol productivity

Simultaneous utilization of mixed sugars without Carbon Catabolite Repression [3, 23, 28, 29]

Fed-batch fermentation [3, 12, 14, 18, 34]

Chemostat/continuous culturing [3, 12,13,14,15, 18, 32, 34]

Immobilized cell chemostat [3, 12,13,14,15, 18, 34]

Cell recycle chemostat [3, 12,13,14,15, 18, 34]

Multi stage chemostat [3, 13, 14, 18]

Low O2 tolerance

Co-culturing to maintain anaerobic conditions [32]

Random mutagenesis and selection [13, 35]

Metabolic engineering [27, 36]

Culture degeneration

Prevention of excessive acidification of the culture [35]

Phage contamination

Good factory hygiene, strains immune to specific phages [27, 35]