Clostridium acetobutylicum

Unlike yeast, which can digest only some sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, C. acetobutylicum and other Clostridia can digest whey, sugars (pentoses, hexoses) and carbohydrates (oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, but not cellulose), starch and perhaps certain types of lignin, yielding n-butanol, propionic acid, ether, and glycerin.

In genetic engineering

In 2008, a strain of Escherichia coli was genetically engineered to synthesize butanol; the genes were derived from Clostridium acetobutylicum. In 2013, the first microbial production of short-chain alkanes was reported - which is a considerable step toward the production of gasoline. One of the crucial enzymes - a fatty acyl-CoA reductase - came from Clostridium acetobutylicum.