title: Measurement and regulation of the culture reduction state in Clostridium acetobutylicum.
abstract: With a constant glucose feed concentration, the change in the continuous culture dillution rate resulted in an altered fermentation profile and the cellular NADH content. The cultures growing at high dillution rates demonstrated an oxidative metabolism low NADH and butanol concentrations. The low specific NADH flourescence (F/X) at high butanol production rates suggested that a rapid regeneration of NADH to NAD is essential for a high solventogenic culture activity. The culture florescence and butanol concentration remained constant in the solventogenic dilution rate range of D = 0.05-0.2 h(-1) with an inverse relationship between the specific flourescence (F/X) and the specific butanol production rate, q(B). Flourometric NADH observations were confirmed by enzymatic NADH determination. The stiochiometric "Fermentation Equation" was used to check the experimental data consistency and to investigate the role of the available biosynthetic and reduction energy on the culture metabolic activities under different growth conditions. The butanol concentration in the broth was stabilized in a fed-batch process when the culture NADH fluorescence was being controlled through the addition of fresh medium.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Bioprocess Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering McGill University, 3480 University Street, Montreal, Canada H3A 2A7.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Srivastava
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Volesky