BACKGROUND Increasing environmental and energy concerns are pushing the development of a bio-based economy, employing highly reproducible, sustainable and green biomanufacturing methods. Here a potential building block 5-aminovalerate for polymer synthesis has been produced from l-lysine. RESULTS l-lysine alpha-oxidase from Scomber japonicas was overexpressed in BL21(DE3); a lysine degradation gene was knocked out to strengthen this process in the microbe. The additions of ethanol and hydrogen peroxide significantly enhanced the production of 5-aminovalerate. The recombinant Escherichia coli CJ02 strain was cultured in a medium containing 20 g L-1 glucose, 10 g L-1 l-lysine, 4% (v/v) ethanol and 10 mM H2O2, producing 5.61 g L-1 5-aminovalerate with a yield of 0.56 g g(-1). Compared with the original producer, this titre represents an 18-fold increase. Excellently, 29.12 g L-1 5-aminovalerate could be achieved with a yield of 0.44 g g(-1) in a 5 L fermenter. CONCLUSION This biotechnological 5-aminovalerate production demonstrates a simple, economic, and green technology to replace the ubiquitous chemical synthesis. More importantly, this strategy of adding ethanol to increase protein expression is not only an efficient process for the production of 5-aminovalerate, but also might be used in the production of other high value-added chemicals. (c) 2018 Society of Chemical Industry