{"id":177838,"date":"2026-06-24T07:26:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=177838"},"modified":"2026-06-23T11:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:57:16","slug":"carbon-efficient-upcycling-of-agrifood-waste-into-fatty-acid-ester-by-engineered-clostridium-tyrobutyricum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/carbon-efficient-upcycling-of-agrifood-waste-into-fatty-acid-ester-by-engineered-clostridium-tyrobutyricum\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon-efficient upcycling of agrifood waste into fatty acid ester by engineered\u00a0Clostridium tyrobutyricum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\"Graphical
Graphical abstract: Low-cost Biological Transformation of Agricultural Waste \u00a9 Nanjing Tech University<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

This study presents a carbon- and cost-efficient biosynthesis strategy for the biofuel butyl butyrate by engineering\u00a0C. tyrobutyricum<\/em>\u00a0to utilize agrifood waste as the sole feedstock. Through iterative, multimodule strain engineering\u2014including promoter engineering, multienzyme colocalization, nonoxidative glycolysis-driven carbon conservation, and cofactor engineering\u2014high-titer butyl butyrate production with excellent selectivity was achieved in 5-l batch fermentations using only rice straw hydrolysate and shrimp shell waste, substantially reducing feedstock costs and life-cycle carbon emissions. The current Technology Readiness Level of this technology lies between 4 and 5. Several challenges remain before industrial implementation. The intracellular localization of lipase restricts access to extracellular precursors, necessitating the development of surface-displayed or secreted lipase systems to achieve complete esterification. Scaling up to industrial-scale fermenters requires optimization of process parameters such as pH control and extraction efficiency. Furthermore, upstream cellulase usage for rice straw hydrolysis accounts for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, and developing low-cost, low-emission pretreatment technologies is essential. With advances in enzyme engineering and process intensification, this technology could progress toward Technology Readiness Level 6\u20137, enabling sustainable biomanufacturing of butyl butyrate from agrifood waste.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An integrated multimodule engineering strategy was developed in C. tyrobutyricum<\/em> for the high-efficiency de novo<\/em>biosynthesis of the biofuel butyl butyrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A three-enzyme colocalization system, using self-assembling peptide tags and membrane-anchoring motifs, was designed to reduce precursor toxicity and enhance product efflux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A nonoxidative glycolysis pathway, combined with deacylase overexpression, was introduced to conserve carbon by bypassing CO2<\/sub>-emitting steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cost-effective fermentation medium, composed exclusively of rice straw hydrolysate and shrimp shell waste, was developed, substantially reducing feedstock costs and life-cycle carbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Microbial conversion of renewable feedstocks into biofuels is gaining interest due to its sustainability. In this research article, we develop a carbon- and cost-efficient fermentation route in Clostridium tyrobutyricum<\/em> to produce the biofuel butyl butyrate (BB) from abundant, low-cost agrifood waste. Using iterative, multimodule strain engineering\u2014promoter engineering, multienzyme colocalization, nonoxidative glycolysis-driven carbon conservation, and cofactor engineering\u2014we achieved high-selectivity BB production from rice straw hydrolysate and shrimp shell waste. The best strain delivered a 49.5-fold improvement, reaching 31.16 g\/l BB with 98.4% selectivity and a productivity of 0.325 g\/l\/h in 5-l batch fermentations. Techno-economic and carbon-footprint analyses indicate that, compared with conventional sugar biorefineries, agrifood-waste biorefineries cut feedstock costs by 53.6% and life-cycle carbon emissions by 63.4% per ton of BB produced. These results show that engineered C. tyrobutyricum<\/em> enables carbon-efficient upcycling of agrifood waste into high-yield BB and provides a blueprint for the biosynthesis of other biofuels.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This study presents a carbon- and cost-efficient biosynthesis strategy for the biofuel butyl butyrate by engineering\u00a0C. tyrobutyricum\u00a0to utilize agrifood waste as the sole feedstock. Through iterative, multimodule strain engineering\u2014including promoter engineering, multienzyme colocalization, nonoxidative glycolysis-driven carbon conservation, and cofactor engineering\u2014high-titer butyl butyrate production with excellent selectivity was achieved in 5-l batch fermentations using only rice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":177840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"An integrated multimodule engineering strategy was developed in\u00a0C. tyrobutyricum\u00a0for the high-efficiency\u00a0de novobiosynthesis of the biofuel butyl butyrate","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,17299,5796,10416],"supplier":[7470],"class_list":["post-177838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biomanufacturing","tag-biotechnology","tag-circulareconomy","supplier-nanjing-tech-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177841,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177838\/revisions\/177841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177838"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=177838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}