Homofermentative production of reduced products requires additional reducing power output (NADH) from glucose catabolism. Anaerobic expression of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDH encoded by aceEF-lpd, a normal aerobic operon) is able to provide the additional NADH required for production of reduced products in E. coli fermentation. The multiple promoters (pflBp(1-7)) of pyruvate formate lyase (pflB) were evaluated for anaerobic expression of the aceEF-lpd operon. Four chromosomal transcriptional fusions, pflBp(1-7)-aceEF-lpd, pflBp(1-6)-aceEF-lpd, pflBp6-aceEF-lpd, and pflBp(6-7)-aceEF-lpd efficiently expressed the PDH complex in anaerobically grown cells. Doubling the reducing power output was achieved when glucose was oxidized to acetyl-CoA through glycolysis and pyruvate oxidation by the anaerobically expressed PDH complex (glucose => 2 acetyl-CoA + 4 NADH). By combining metabolic pathway engineering and anaerobic expression of the PDH complex, a homoethanol pathway (pyruvate-to-acetyl-CoA-to-acetaldehyde-to-ethanol) was developed for production of a reduced product, ethanol. This approach can be applied for production of other reduced products in anaerobic E. coli fermentation.