This project is a joint effort between Environmental Energy Inc. (EEI) and The Ohio State University (OSU). We are applying OSU's U.S. Patent 5,563,069 “Extractive Fermentation Using Convoluted Fibrous Bed Bio-reactor” and EEI's U.S. Patent 5,753,474 “Continuous Two Stage, Dual Path Anaerobic Fermentation of Butanol and Other Organic Solvents Using Two Different Strains of Bacteria” for economical production of butanol from biomass. Bacteria that express a solventogenesis phase physiology, such as C. acetobutylicum, waste a tremendous amount of available carbon (e.g., glucose) on multiple byproducts. By first going through acidogenesis (first stage) where feedstock carbohydrates are converted into multiple acids and then as the acids build up the microbe changes to solventogenesis (second stage) and begins consuming the acids to produce the correlated solvents/alcohols. The advantage of this class of microbes is that they do consume acids and produce associated solvents. EEI’s patent is based on this fermentation nature and separates the fermentation into two steps: step one converts incoming carbohydrates to one specific acid and step two converts that acid into its associated solvent/alcohol. Preliminary laboratory studies and theoretical analysis based on metabolic pathway indicated that the new process could increase butanol yield from a bushel of corn by almost 100% compared to conventional batch processes (1.3 gallons per bushel to our 2.5 gallons per bushel). The results of this Phase II contract has seen these numbers proven.