Fermentation succinic acid

Succinic acid is a potential platform chemical that is expected to be commercialised in a few years. Although the production capacity of petrochemically derived succinic acid is on the scale of 15 000 tonnes per year (Zeikus etal., 1999), the production capacity of succinic acid derivatives is over 270 000 tonnes per year (Willke and Vorlop, 2004). Fermentative production of succinic acid could offer a viable route to bulk chemical production. Figure 4.4 presents potential routes for chemical production from succinic acid (McKinlay et al., 2007). Another advantage of succinic acid microbial production is the simultaneous requirement for CO2 consumption, which reduces the emission of the most important greenhouse gas and makes fermentative succinic acid production a process of significantly low environmental impact. 

Properties.—Succinic acid has been known for a long time. It is quite widely distributed in nature. It is found in unripe fruits, especially in grapes, also in lignite, in peat and in many plants. Its most important occurrence is in amber from which it may be obtained by distillation. It is also a constituent of wines where it is the product of the alcoholic fermentation of the sugars of grape juice. Another source, which will be considered later, is from malic and tartaric acids by bacterial or mould fermentation. Succinic acid crystallizes in plates or columns which melt at 182°. It sublimes when it is heated below its melting point. When heated rapidly to 235° it loses water and forms an anhydride. It is soluble in 14 parts of water. 

Fig. 7 Distribution of end products during the fermentative succinic acid production (initial cheese whey concentration of 50 g/L, pH of 6.8, and inoculum size of 5%)...

G 180 CO2 44 Fermentation Succinic acid 1 118 Acetic-tformic acid 106 53 1.33 [17]... 

Scholten, E., Renz, T., and Ihomas, J. (2009) Continuous cultivation approach for fermentative succinic acid production from crude glycerol by Basjia succiniciproducens DDl. Biotechnol. Lett, 31, 1947-1951. 

It can be found in animal tissues (1), in vegetables and fmit (2,3), or in spring water (4), and has also been identified in meteorites (5). It is formed in alcohohc fermentation (6) and in the chemical and biochemical oxidation of fats. Succinic acid is present in amber (7) Succinuni) and can be obtained by distillation, by which method it was first isolated by Georgius Agricola in 1550. 

Other microorganisms ferment sugars to succinic acid (HOOC-CH2-CH2-COOH), a promising intermediate for numerous chemicals [71]. Technical challenges include the toxicity of the succinate for the microorganisms, the need for expensive nutrients, the undesired co-production of acetic or pyruvic acid and the cost of acidifying the succinate to succinic acid. 

There are several companies and groups that are developing bio-based succinic acid production for commercial use. The Showa group possesses a unique technology for purification of succinic acid from fermentation broth. This is the fractional crystallization method starting from sodium succinate. The yield by this method is around 70%, but we can recycle the residual solution so that we can minimize the loss of the product. We also compared the cost-effectiveness of this method with the bipolar electrodialysis method. The cost of our purification process seemed to be about half (our internal data). 

Playne, M.J. (1985) Determination of ethanol, volatile fatty acids, lactic and succinic acids in fermentation liquids by gas chromatography. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 36, 638-644. 

The yield of 1,3-PD for this reaction is 67% (mol/mol). If biomass formation is considered the theoretical maximal yield reduces to 64%. In the actual fermentation a number of other by-products are formed, i. e., ethanol, lactic acid, succinic acid, and 2,3-butanediol, by the enterobacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae, Citrobacter freundii and Enterobacter agglomerans, butyric acid by Clostridium butyricum, and butanol by Clostridium pasteurianum (Fig. 1). All these by-products are associated with a loss in 1,3-PD relative to acetic acid, in particular ethanol and butanol, which do not contribute to the NADH2 pool at all. 

Succinic acid. Succinic add is also available via fermentation of glucose, and has the potential to become a large-scale industrial chemical in the future. However, there are only a few reports on dehydration reactions involving succinic acids in the literature, and most of these are concerned with esterification to produce dialkyl esters. The synthesis of various dialkyl esters was reported using metal exchanged montmorillonite clays (Na, Mn ", ... 

Fermentation of lactic acid to yield propionic acid, carbon dioxide, acetic acid, and succinic acid is important for proper eye formation and flavor development in Emmental, Gruyere, and Swiss-type cheese varieties. This fermentation is associated with Propionibacterium spp. subspecies of Propionibacterium freudenreichii are of greatest significance. These organisms can also be used for industrial production of vitamin Bi2 and propionic acid. 

Some of the glucose is converted to D-lactic and to succinic acids (pathway/, Fig. 17-9) hence the name mixed acid fermentation. Table 17-1 gives typical yields of the mixed acid fermentation of E. coli. Among the four major products are acetate, ethanol, H2, and C02, as shown in Eq. 17-25. However, at high pH formate accumulated instead of C02. 

Tills is generally associated with the familiar alcoholic fermentation in which theoretically 100 parts of glucose are converted to 51.1 parts of ethyl alcohol (ethanol). 48.9 parts of carbon dioxide (CO/i. and heat. In addition, however, the anaerobic reaction also yields minor byproducts in small amounts—mainly glycerol, succinic acid, higher alcohols (fusel oil), 2,3-butanediol, and traces of acetaldehyde, acetic acid, and lactic acid. Fusel oil is a mixture of alcohols, including -propyl, -butyl, isobutyl, amyl, and isoamyl alcohols. 

FIGURE 4.21 H NMR spectra (400 MHz) of time course evolution of red wine in alcoholic and malolactic fermentations for grape red must (pH 3). Peaks 1, ethanol 2, ethanol satellites 3, lactic acid 4, acetic acid 5, succinic acid 6, malic acid 7, 2,3-butanediol 8, proline 9, alanine. (From Avenoza et at, 2006.)... 

A two-stage ED process was also proposed to recover succinic acid [HOOC (CH2)2COOH] from sugar- and triptophane-based fermentation media (Glassner and Datta, 1992). The broth was previously concentrated via ED using monopolar membranes and then separated into sodium hydroxide-and free succinic acid-rich streams using bipolar membranes. Further removal of sodium cations and sulfate anions was achieved using weakly acid and -basic IER. 

Succinic Acid Adsorption from Fermentation Broth and Regeneration... 

Index Entries Succinic acid sorbent adsorption hot water regeneration glucose fermentation broth. 

Many industrial organic acids can be produced by fermentation, such as acetic, citric, and lactic acids. Succinic acid is a dicarboxylic acid of potential industrial interest as a platform chemical (1-3). Separation and purification of succinic acid by adsorption was tested to replace current precipitation methods and their associated waste disposal problems. Succinic acid is a valuable intermediate value chemical with a moderate market. For succinic acid to have an economic and energy impact, it will need to become a commodity chemical intermediate with a much lower price. This target price hasbeen estimated to be between 0.22 and 0.30 / lb ( 0.48- 0.66/kg) and is potentially achievable with advanced technology (1). At this price, succinic acid can be catalytically upgraded into other higher valued chemicals suchastetrahydrofuran, 1,4-butanediol, y-butyrolactone, 2-pyrrolidinone, and N-methylpyrrolidinone. 

There is no current commercial biologic process for the production of succinic acid. In past laboratory systems, when succinic acid has been produced by fermentation, lime is added to the fermentation medium to neutralize the acid, yielding calcium succinate (2). The calcium succinate salt then precipitates out of the solution. Subsequently, sulfuric acid is added to the salt to produce the free soluble succinic acid and solid calcium sulfate (gypsum). The acid is then purified with several washings over a sorbent to remove impurities. The disposal of the solid waste is both a directly economic and an environmental concern, as is the cost of the raw materials. Some key process-related problems have been identified as follows (1) the separation of dilute product streams and the related costs of recovery, (2) the elimination of the salt waste from the current purification process, and (3) the reduction of inhibition to the product succinic acid on the fermentation itself. Acetic acid is also a byproduct of the fermentation of glucose by Anaerobiospirillium succiniciproducens almost 1 mol of acetate will be produced for every 2 mol of succinate (3). Under certain cultivation conditions by a mutant Escherichia coli, lesser amounts of acetate can be produced (4,5). This byproduct will also need to be separated. 

It may also be economical to remove the inhibitory product directly from the ongoing fermentation by extraction, membranes, or sorption. The use of sorption with simultaneous fermentation and separation for succinic acid has not been investigated. Separation has been used to enhance other organic acid fermentations through in situ separation or separation from a recycled side stream. Solid sorbents have been added directly to batch fermentations (18,19). Seevarantnam et al. (20) tested a sorbent in the solvent phase to enhance recovery of lactic acid from free cell batch culture. A sorption column was also used to remove lactate from a recycled side stream in a free-cell continuously stirred tank reactor (21). Continuous sorption for in situ separation in a biparticle fermentor was successful in enhancing the production of lactic acid (16,22). Recovery in this system was tested with hot water (16). 

In the present study, various sorbents were tested for the critical properties of capacity for succinic acid, regenerability of the sorbent, and coadsorption of substrates. These criteria were evaluated in order to choose a suitable sorbent for use with either a primary purification step or an in situ separation and fermentation. Other factors that were considered were the pH, temperature, and potential ability to concentrate the product. 

---