Patent ID: 8715977

Claim:
A method for producing ethanol using alginate as a raw material, comprising: introducing a gene encoding pyruvate decarboxylase derived from Zymomonas mobilis and a gene encoding alcohol dehydrogenase derived from Zymomonas mobilis into a Sphingomonas sp. strain A1 which has an ABC transporter, alginate-binding proteins, endo-/exo-type alginate lyases, keto acid reductase, kinase, and aldolase, to obtain a transformed Sphingomonas sp. strain A1; and then culturing the transformed Sphingomonas sp. strain A1 for 5 to 7 days by adding alginate or alginate oligosaccharide into a medium in an amount of 1 g/100 ml once per day starting from the third day of the culture, to produce a concentration of 0.7% (w/v) or more of ethanol in the medium, wherein the gene encoding pyruvate decarboxylase derived from Zymomonas mobilis and the gene encoding alcohol dehydrogenase derived from Zymomonas mobilis are controlled by a Sphingomonas sp. strain A1-derived SPH2987 gene promoter consisting of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 25 and are thus expressed at high levels.