Homoacetogen and its Application in Environmental Biotechnology

Abstract:

Homoacetogen is a kind of anaerobic microbial group which can utilize a variety of organic substrates and gas substrates(such as CO2,H2 and CO ) to form acetate, ethanol and other chemicals through acetyl -CoA pathway. They can survive in almost all kinds of ecological environment.With the depletion of fossil energy and the better understanding of homoacetogenic, it becomes more popular to apply homoacetogen into organic matter fermentation, syngas fermentation, and degradation of organic pollutants with nitrocellulose .Certain species of homoacetogen and their physiological and ecological characteristics are summarized in this paper. And the applications and research progress about homoacetogen in environmental biotechnology are also discussed thereafter.

Key words:homoacetogen; physiological and ecological characters; anaerobic fermentation; degradation of organic pollutants