Lignocellulosic biomass has great potential for use as a carbon source for the production of second-generation biofuels by solventogenic bacteria. Here we describe the production of butanol by a newly discovered wild-type Clostridium species strain G117 with xylan as the sole carbon source for fermentation. Strain G117 produced 0.86 +/- 0.07 g/L butanol and 53.4 +/- 0.05 mL hydrogen directly from 60 g/L xylan provided that had undergone no prior enzymatic hydrolysis. After process optimization, the amount of butanol produced from xylan was increased to 1.24 +/- 0.37 g/L. In contrast to traditional acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) solventogenic fermentation, xylan supported fermentation in strain G117 and negligible amount of acetone was produced. The expression of genes normally associated with acetone production (adc and ctfB2) were down-regulated compared to xylose fed cultures. This lack of acetone production may greatly simplify downstream separation process. Moreover, higher amount of butanol (2.94 g/L) was produced from 16.99 g/L xylo-oligosaccharides, suggesting a major role for strain G117 in butanol production from xylan and its oligosaccharides. The unique ability of strain G117 to produce a considerable amount of butanol directly from xylan without producing undesirable fermentation byproducts opens the door to the possibility of cost-effective biofuels production in a single step. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.