Primary fermenter · Hydrolytic bacterium · Syntrophic H₂ producer
Clostridium butyricum
Bacillota · Clostridia · Clostridiaceae
- Fermenter
- H₂ producer
- Starch degrader
- Spore former
- Tier 2
- Syntrophic
01 · Identity
Identity
Where this organism sits in the tree of life, how to obtain it, and what a cell looks like.
Lineage
- domainBacteria
- ›phylumBacillota
- ›classClostridia
- ›orderEubacteriales
- ›familyClostridiaceae
- ›genusClostridium
- ›speciesClostridium butyricum
Culture collections & accessions
- NCBI taxon
- 1492
Cell morphology
Rod, Gram-positive (monoderm)
- Motile: yes
- Spore-forming: yes
02 · Electron transfer
Electron transfer
How electrons cross the cell envelope — the property that makes a microbe useful in an electrochemical system.
Mechanisms
- Endogenous shuttles: yes
03 · Growth envelope
Growth envelope
The conditions this organism tolerates and what it eats and breathes — the operating window for a reactor.
Carbon sources
- Glucose
- Starch
- Glycerol
- Lactate
- various sugars
Hydrolytic capabilities
- Starch
- Fermentative: yes
Metabolism — detail
- ATP synthase type
- Proton dependent
04 · Growth & electron-transfer kinetics
Growth & electron-transfer kinetics
How fast this organism grows and how hard it pushes electrons into an anode, as the corpus reports it, and what those constants imply when you run them.
Kinetic evidence
| Parameter | Median | 10–90 % | n | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max. specific growth rate μmax | Not in the corpus yet | |||
| Half-saturation constant Ks | Not in the corpus yet | |||
| Biomass yield Y | Not in the corpus yet | |||
| Decay coefficient kd | Not in the corpus yet | |||
| Exchange current density i₀ | Not in the corpus yet | |||
| Transfer coefficient α | Not in the corpus yet | |||
| Tafel slope | Not in the corpus yet | |||
Median of the extracted values, the 10–90 % spread behind it and how many values it pools.
1 rows were not pooled: their unit could not be converted unambiguously.
Evidence rows (1)
Listed, not pooled (1)
- Vmax0.29 g L⁻¹ d⁻¹Not verifiedgenus rowconfidence 1
Carbon dioxide to bio-oil in a bioelectrochemical system-assisted microalgae biorefinery process · 2022 · 10.1039/d1se01701b
“The system reached a concentration of up to 13 g L⁻¹ of acetate (at a maximum production rate of 0.29 g L⁻¹ d⁻¹).”
Not used in an estimate · unrecognised kinetic parameter "Vmax"
Constants that drive the simulation
Type the constants you want to test. Nothing is pre-filled: an empty field stays missing.
Scenario — values you set, not evidence
Not enough evidence to simulate
No Max. specific growth rate μmax, Half-saturation constant Ks, Biomass yield Y for this organism in the corpus yet.
- Max. specific growth rate μmax
- Half-saturation constant Ks
- Biomass yield Y
1 linked papers report kinetic constants for it; extraction is pending. See its papers
These curves are a Monod and Nernst-Monod idealisation (after Marcus et al. 2007 and Torres et al. 2008), parameterised only by the constants listed above: each one carries its n and its 10–90 % range, and a constant with n = 1 has no spread at all. No diffusion inside the biofilm, no detachment, no coulombic-efficiency split. The scenario values are yours, not evidence.
05 · Performance
Performance
Reported electrochemical output, the role it plays in a reactor, and what it produces.
Role in a reactor
Substrate → product (1)
- glucoseyields
- Butyrate
- Acetate
- H2
- CO2
anaerobic fermentation · yield 2 mol H₂/mol glucose · Major H2 producer in mixed-culture MFCs.
06 · Ecology & biofilm
Ecology & biofilm
How it lives on an electrode, who it partners with, and where it is found in nature.
- Syntrophic partners
Relationship Transfer carrier Partner scientific name Provides acetate substrate to electrogenic anode community Acetate Geobacter spp. Provides H2 (competitor with anode for electrons in MFC) H2 hydrogenotrophic methanogens
Ecosystems
- Soil
- Host associated
- Wastewater
- Anaerobic digester
Isolation sources
- Soil
- human gut
- Sewage
07 · Applications, engineering & safety
Applications, engineering & safety
Where it has been put to work, how tractable it is to engineer, and what handling it requires.
Applications (2)
- Wastewater treatmentTRL 5/9
- Hydrogen production MECTRL 4/9
Engineering
Reactor compatibility
- MFC single chamber
- MFC dual chamber
- MEC
Biosafety
- Pathogen: no
Some strains used as probiotics; rarely pathogenic.
Modeling assets
Linked GEM: iCBU
08 · Sources & data quality
Sources & data quality
Every value above traces to a citation. This is how complete and how confident the record is.
Record quality
Literature reviewed 2026-04-26 · schema v1.2.0 · updated 2026-04-28 · imported 2026-04-28
References (1)
- Park HS, et al. (2001). A novel electrochemically active and Fe(III)-reducing bacterium phylogenetically related to Clostridium butyricum isolated from a microbial fuel cell. Anaerobe 7:297-306.