ABSTRACT
To evaluate the ability of microbial mix-culture fermenting syngas into ethanol, we studied the microbial mix-cultures A-fm 4, G-fm 4, Lp-fm 4 and B-fm 4 obtained by enrichment and compared with Clostridium autoethanogenum DSM10061 with 10% and 25% inoculation size. The results show that, with 10% inoculation size, the ethanol production of A-fm 4, G-fm 4, Lp-fm 4, B-fm 4 and C. autoethanogenum were 349.15, 232.16, 104.25, 79.90 and 26.99 mg/L respectively. With 25% inoculation size, the ethanol production were 485.81, 472.73, 348.58, 272.52 and 242.15 mg/L respectively. Higher inoculation size will increase the production of ethanol. The tested mix-culture exhibited a significant yield advantage compared with the maximum production of C. autoethanogenum reported in the literature (259.64 mg/L). This research provided a practical method to improve ethanol production from syngas.