Advances in Bioenergy

3. ABE Fermentation

3.1. History

In 1861, Louis Pasteur isolated a bacterium which could produce butyric acid and named it Vibrion butyrique (Pasteur, 1861). Since it could only grow under oxygen-free conditions, the definition “anaerobic” emerged for the first time to describe this type of metabolism (Pasteur, 1863). Later, in 1862, Pasteur revealed that besides butyrate, V. butyrique also produced the solvent butanol, and this is the first time ABE fermentation was described (Pasteur, 1862). In 1876, the second butanol-forming bacteria was observed by Albert Fitz and designated as Bacillus butylicus (Fitz, 1876). Seventeen years later, another two microorganisms, Granulobacter butylicus and Granulobacter saccharobutyricum, were reported by the ...