Bioconversion of isopropanol by a solvent tolerant Sphingobacterium mizutae strain.

The bioconversion of high concentration isopropanol (2-propanol, IPA) was investigated by a solvent tolerant strain of bacteria, which was identified as Sphingobacterium mizutae ST2 by partial 16S rDNA gene sequencing. This strain of bacteria exhibited the ability to utilise high concentration isopropanol as the sole carbon source, with mineralization occurring via an acetone intermediate into central metabolism. The biodegradative performance of this strain for IPA was examined over a 2-38 g l(-1) concentration range, using specific growth rate (mu) and conversion rate analysis. Maximum specific growth rates (mu(max)) of 0.0045 h(-1 )were routinely obtainable on IPA. In addition, the highest specific IPA degradation rate was obtained at a concentration of 7.5 g l(-1) with a corresponding value of 0.045 g IPA g cells(-1) h(-1). While the highest acetone yield reached its maximum value of 0.940 g acetone g IPA(-1) at 7.5 g IPA l(-1). This is the first report on bioconversion of isopropanol at such high concentration by this solvent tolerant strain of S. mizutae and may allow its application in novel biocatalytic processes for effective biological conversion in two-phase solvent systems.