Butyric acid biochemical production

Zigova J, Sturdik E, Vandak D, and Schlosser S. Butyric acid production by Clostridium butyricum with integrated extraction and pertraction. Process Biochem (Oxford), 1999 34(8) 835-843. 

The first possibility is dubious, because there is no known biochemical oxidation reaction by which this would be accomplished. The other two possible pathways, acetone dicarboxylic acid or butyric acid, would both yield carboxyl-labeled acetoacetate, and thus 3,4-labeled glucose. The isolation of acetoacetate labeled only in the carboxyl group supports either possibility. An objection against the acetone dicarboxylic acid pathway is that acetoacetate, being a direct metabolic product of glutarate (see equation 6), should exhibit a higher specific activity than its resulting product, acetate. In the experiments of the above authors the specific... 

The fermentative production of butyric acid was first detected by Louis Pasteur from his landmark anaerobic cultivation in 1861 (Van Andel et al., 1985 Wu and Yang, 2003). The biochemical production of butyric acid using fermentation was popular in 1945 and onwards (Lee et al., 2008b). However, after 1960, this anaerobic fermentation lost its competitiveness due to high feedstock costs and fast-growing petrochemical industries. With increasing costs of liquid fossil fuels, rising environmental concerns, and the depletion of nonrenewable sources, interest has been reestablished in anaerobic fermentation. 

TABLE 7.2 Biochemical Production of Butanol Using Butyric Acid as a Substrate or as Supplements ... 

Zigova, J., Svitel, J., Sturdik, E., 2000. Possibilities of butyric acid production by butanol oxidation with Glucono-bacter oxydans coupled with extraction. Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Quarterly 14 (3), 95-100. 

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