Succinic acid butanediol potential

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. 

Moreover, succinic acid is also a platform chemical used as a precursor of many commodity or specialty chemicals, including adipic acid, 1,4-butanediol, tetrahydro-furan, N-methyl pyrroUdinone, 2-pyrrohdinone, succinic acid esters, succinate salts, and y-butyrolactone (Fig. 1) The derivatives of succinic acid are estimated have a maiket potential of 270,000 tons per year (Zeikus et al. 1999 Willke and Vorlop 2004). 

Direct melt polymerization of succinic acid and butanediol to PBS. Direct polymerization of PBS is a polymerization process starting from dicarboxyl acid and alkyl diol without a chain-extension step. Direct melt polymerization of PBS can be conducted in two ways one is where the polymerization is finished in the melt of succinic acid and butanediol, called direct melt polymerization, the other is where the polymerization is finished in the solution of raw materials, namely, solution polymerization. Direct melt polymerization is simple and can produce PBS of high molecular weight, so it is considered the most promising process for PBS production owing to the economic considerations and the potential applicalions in food-contacting packages. 

The first main application field for bio-based succinic acid is the synthesis of three important bulk chemicals, namely 1,4-butanediol (BDO), y-butyrolactone (GBL), and tetrahydrofuran (THF), with an estimated total production volume in the year 2007 of more than 500,000 tons per year (McKinlay et al., 2007). The worldwide production of GBL was estimated at that time to 250,000 tons per year, and it is used primarily as solvent and as precursor for the production of pharmaceuticals, herbicides, and rubber additives. THF is also a widely used solvent and represents the starting material in numerous chemical syntheses. However, BDO is the most important chemical in this group. It has a constantly growing market with global production estimated to be about 2 million tons per year nowadays (http //www.icis.com/Articles/2012/ 01/30/9527521/chemical-industry-awaits-for-bio-succinic-acid-potential.html). It is... 

Lee SH, Lim SW, Lee KHP. Properties of potentially biodegradable copolyesters of (succinic acid-l,4-butanediol)/(dimethyl terephthalate-1,4-butanediol). Polym Int 1998 48 861. 

Ethylenediamine-Ar,N -disuccinic (EDDS) acid is a chelator that can be used in detergents and is a potential replacement for ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) (Lin et al. 1996). It is also biodegradable, and various optical isomers have different susceptibilities to biodegradation (Takahashi et al. 1997). Succinic acid also can be used in the manufacture of biodegradable plastic. A novel biodegradable plastic, called Bionolle, invented in the early 1990s is based on poly(butylene succinate), poly (butylene adipate succinate), or poly(ethylene succinate). These plastics have been produced on a pilot plant scale and show good processability. They can be processed with conventional equipment and can be made into products such as bottles and foam (Fujimaki 1998). A copolymer can be made with succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol (Takiyama and Fujimaki 1994). Bionolle has been shown to be biod adable in a variety of environments. 

The other key issue for production of large-volume chemicals is the technology needed to further convert succinic acid to other products such as 1,4-butanediol. This process technology must be very competitive with other processes that start with low-cost petrochemical feedstocks. One potential avenue to reducing costs may be the use of crude fermentation broth that is chemically converted and then purified in some further downstream process. 

Succinic acid can be used as a precursor for many industrial chemicals (1,4-butanediol, succinate salts), biodegradable polyester resins, additives in the food industry, smfactants, detergents, ion chelators, and also in the pharmaceutical industry (Song and Lee, 2006 Kurzrock and Weuster-Botz, 2010 Vlysidis et al., 2011). Succinic acid is sold at around US 5.9-9.0/ kg, depending on the purity, with an estimated market potential of more than 270,000t/year (Song and Lee, 2006). 

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