Date Fruit as Carbon Source in RCM-Modified Medium to Produce Biobutanol by Clostridium acetobutylicum NCIMB 13357

Date fruit can be used as an organic carbohydrate source in modified fermentation media to produce biobutanol. Filtrate from date fruit contains high concentration of simple sugars ranging from 65 to 75 %. Reinforced Clostridial Medium (RCM) supplemented with filtrate of date fruit was investigated under anaerobic fermentation conditions using Clostridium acetobutylicum NCIMB 13357 for production of Acetone, Butanol and ethanol (ABE). The effects of temperature, pH and concentration of date fruit filtrate on the efficiency of C. acetobutylicum showed that 40 g L-1 date fruit filtrate at initial pH 7 and temperature 35°C were the optimal fermentation condition that gave the highest amount of butanol- 4.4 g L-1. The yield and productivity of Biobutanol were 0. 3 g g-1 and 0.07 g L-1 h-1 respectively while the Yield and Productivity of ABE were 0.41 g g-1 and 0.09 g L-1 h-1, respectively.