Isolation, characterization and evaluation of hyper 2-propanol producing bacteria from Singapore environment

Three hyper 2-propanol producing strains were isolated from Singapore environment using an enrichment step and a high through-put screening step. The analysis of the amplified 16S rDNA revealed that the isolates belonged to Clostridium species and they were named as Clostridium sp. BT10-1, Clostridium sp. M10-1 and Clostridium sp. PU31-4. At 1 L scale, the 2-propanol titer of these positive strains was 1.6-2.1 times of that of Clostridium beijerinckii NRRL B593, which is so far the most efficient natural 2-propanol producer. The highest 2-propanol titer was achieved by isolate BT10-6 and it was 5.26 g/L (87.5 mM). These three positive strains BT10-6, M10-1 and PU31-4 consumed glucose almost completely in 40-48 h and gave 2-propanol productivity at 0.132, 0.118 and 0.087 g/L/h, respectively, which is 3.0-4.6 times of 0.029 g/L/h given by C. beijerinckii NRRL B593. Butanol was also produced by these positive strains with a slightly lower butanol titer and higher butanol productivity, compared to butanol control strain C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052.