Biosuccinic acid

At present succinic acid is a specialty chemical with an annual production volume of about 30 000 tons worldwide. Fossil-based succinic acid is most commonly prepared via hydrogenation of maleic anhydride (by oxidation of n-butane or benzene) [73]. In the field of bio-based chemicals and building blocks succinic acid is considered to be one of the most important platform chemicals [1, 74, 75], and as a result of the introduction of biosuccinic acid the production volume is expected to double or triple within years. Several fermentation processes have been described to produce bio-based succinic acid. Common feedstocks for these processes include glucose, starch and xylose [76]. The commercial potential for bio-succinic acid is illustrated by the numerous initiatives by companies that are working towards, or already... 

Biosuccinic acid fermentation C6H12O6 + 2CO2 2C4H6O4... 

In 2009, BASF and Purac formed a partnership for the development of the industrial fermentation and downstream processing of biosuccinic acid, and are now establishing a joint venture for the production and sale of biobased succinic acid. The company has been named Succinity GmbH and started up officially in August 2013. The two companies have modified an existing fermentation facility of Purac in Montmelo, Spain, for the production of succinic acid. The annual capacity of the plant is 10,000 metric tonnes and production started in March 2014 [109]. 

Myriant Technologies, in the USA, has received a 50 million grant from the US Department of Energy to help build a commercial-scale biosuccinic acid facility in Louisiana of 15,000 tonnes/year capacity. Currently, the company is producing succinic acid via fermentation on a pilot scale [110]. 

The addressable market for polybutylene succinate blends, polybutylene succinate composites, and polybutylene succinate is about 2 billion. The BioAmber-Mitsui joint venture has been contracted by Mitsubishi Chemical to be its exclusive supplier of biosuccinic acid for its polybutylene succinate. Mitsubishi Chemical has formed a joint venture, PTT MCC Biochem, with the Thailand-based PPT Group to produce sugar-derived polybutylene succinate in a 20,000tons/year plant to be located in Rayong, Thailand. Mitsubishi Chemical produces and markets 3000tons/year polybutylene succinate from its Japan plant. It premarkets bio-derived polybutylene succinate produced from biosuccinic acid from BioAmber. 

Myriant partnered with Davy for the testing and approval of its biosuccinic acid as a drop-in feedstock replacement for maleic anhydride within Davy Process. The Davy BDO process converts maleic anhydride into dimethyl succinate and then into BDO. 

BioAmber is also working on biosuccinic-to-BDO. In 2010, it licensed US-based DuPont s hydrogenation catalyst technology to make bio-BDO and bio-THF from biosuccinic acid (Independent Chemical Information Service (ICIS)). 

Succinic and malic acids are listed among the top 15 platform chemical opportunities to be produced from biorefinery carbohydrates by the US Department of Energy (DoE Werpy et al., 2004 Bozell and Petersen, 2010). Succinic acid is traditionally produced by the catalytic hydrogenation of petrochemical maleic acid or anhydride (de Jong et al., 2012). Its market value potential has been projected as 245 x 10 tons per year, while an additional market size of 25 X10 tons per year is expected for succinic acid-derived polymers (Bozell and Petersen, 2010). Therefore biosuccinic acid production from microbial processes is anticipated to increase progressively in the near future. 

The recovery for succinic acid is a very crucial step and accounts for around 60% of the total production cost (Song and Lee, 2006). The fermentation conditions need to be adapted to the purification steps to account for the maximum recovery (Kurzrock and Weuster-Botz, 2010). The integrated approach of vacuum distillation and crystallization resulted in a maximum yield of 73% (Song and Lee, 2006). The process cost of biosuccinic acid is arotmd US 0.7-1.4/kg of succinic acid (Kurzrock and Weuster-Botz, 2010). 

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