1,3-Propanediol (1,3-PD), a valuable bulk industrial material, has attracted increasing interest in recent years. A novel strain GYL isolated from soil samples could efficiently convert glycerol to 1,3-PD anaerobically. The physiological and biochemical characteristics of strain GYL were determined, indicating that strain GYL is a member of Clostridium perfringens with the neighbor-joining method of 16S rRNA gene sequences. The fermentation properties of strain GYL were also investigated systematically, which showed that the strain has a fast growth speed and high tolerance to 200 g/L glycerol. Batch fermentation was carried out at a high glycerol concentration of 100 g/L, and strain GYL produced 36.7 g/L 1,3-PD. In fed-batch fermentation, strain GYL showed a maximum productivity of 2.0 g/(L.h), and produced 40.0 g/ L 1,3-PD, with a high yield of 0.68 mol 1,3-PD/mol glycerol. This study shows that the newly isolated strain GYL may have potential for 1,3-PD production from glycerol. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.