초록
<P><I>Escherichia coli</I> can hardly grow anaerobically on glycerol without exogenous electron acceptor. The formate-consuming methanogen <I>Methanobacterium formicicum</I> plays a role as a living electron acceptor in glycerol fermentation of <I>E</I>. <I>coli</I>. Wild-type and mutant <I>E</I>. <I>coli</I> strains were screened for succinate production using glycerol in a co-culture with <I>M</I>. <I>formicicum</I>. Subsequently, <I>E</I>. <I>coli</I> was adapted to glycerol fermentation over 39 rounds (273 days) by successive co-culture with <I>M</I>. <I>formicicum</I>. The adapted <I>E</I>. <I>coli</I> (19.9 mM) produced twice as much succinate as non-adapted <I>E</I>. <I>coli</I> (9.7 mM) and 62% more methane. This study demonstrated improved succinate production from waste glycerol using an adapted wild-type strain of <I>E</I>. <I>coli</I> with wild-type <I>M</I>. <I>formicicum</I>, which is more useful than genetically modified strains. Crude glycerol, an economical feedstock, was used for the cultivation. Furthermore, the increase in methane production by <I>M</I>. <I>formicicum</I> during co-culture with adapted <I>E</I>. <I>coli</I> illustrated the possibility of energy-saving effects for the fermentation process.</P><P><B>Electronic supplementary material</B></P><P>The online version of this article (10.1007/s10295-017-1994-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.</P>