Succinic acid production

The development of bio-based succinic acid production was carried out as the NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, an implementing agency of METI in Japan) project from 2004 to 2006, and the possibility of bio-based materials was confirmed. 

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). 

For succinic acid production, we estimate the energy consumption of the production process amounts of raw materials such as naphtha, heavy oil and water and amounts of hydrogen and oxygen required in the intermediate processes, based on number of sources [8, 10, 11]. For production of the raw materials naphtha and heavy oil, and for hydrogen and oxygen required, we adopt data from JEMAl LCA Ver. 1.1.6 [8]. For water used in the process, we adopt the data on clean water supply from the literature [12]. 

Starch kneading Bionolle production Succinic acid production 1,4-butanediol production Starch, etc. production Raw material transportation Disposal (C02 emission)... 

In the present study, we evaluated a two-step process for succinic acid production. The first process was fumaric acid production by Rhizopus sp. using rice bran, and the second process was succinic acid production by Enterococcus faecalis RKY1 (5-7) using fungal culture broth obtained in the first process. We investigated the effects of rice bran on fumaric acid production and optimized the culture medium for fumaric acid fermentation. Furthermore, we optimized the culture conditions for succinic acid conversion from fumaric acid produced by the first process. 

Fig. 5. Effect of glycerol concentration on succinic acid production, fumaric acid consumption, and cell growth. The culture conditions were as follows 50-mL vial (40 mL of medium) 15 g/L of yeast extract 5 g/L of K2HP04 initial pH of 7.0.

Finally, we investigated the inhibition of concentrated fungal culture broth on succinic acid production and fumaric acid consumption. As shown in Fig. 8, we found that concentrated fungal culture broth slightly inhibited the bacterial conversion. Succinic acid could be efficiently produced from fungal culture broth until it was concentrated to three-fold (64 g/L of fumaric acid). However, the conversion time needed was severely prolonged when it was concentrated to more than four-fold (84 g/L of fumaric acid). Since E.faecalis RKY1 could efficiently convert fumaric 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. 

Du, C., Lin, S., Koutinas, A., Wang, R. and Webb, C. 2007b. Succinic Acid Production from Wheat Using a Biorefining Strategy.Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., DOI 10.1007/s00253-007-1113-7... 

Lee, P.C., Lee, W.G., Lee, S.Y. and Chang, H.N. 2001. Succinic Acid Production with Reduced By-Product Formation in the Fermentation of Anaerobiospirillum Succiniciproducens Using Glycerol as a Carbon Source. Biotechnol. Bioeng., 72, 41 —48. 

Zeikus, J.G., Jain, M.K. and Elankovan, P. 1999. Biotechnology of Succinic Acid Production and Markets for Derived Industrial Products. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 51, 545-552. 

Lee SJ, Song H, Lee SY (2006) Genome-based metabolic engineering of Mannheimia succiniciproducens for succinic acid production. Appl Environ Microbiol 72 1939-1948... 

Succinic acid is currently manufactured by the hydrogenation of maleic anhydride to succinic anhydride, followed by hydration to succinic acid. A fermentation process for succinic acid production is desirable because in such processes, renewable resources such as starchy crops and other agricultural products can be used as feedstock for the biological production of succinic acid. It addition, a high purity product, which is required as raw material for polymer manufacture, can be obtained. 

Lee et al. (2005b) evaluated the correlation between maximum biomass and succinic acid production for various combinatorial gene knockout strains. This sets the stage for the simultaneous maximization of biomass and succinic acid production using the e-constraint method. In this method, an MOO problem is converted into an equivalent single... 

The solution value was corrected for enthalpies of solution. The enthalpy of solution of succinic acid (product) is 5.3(0.1) kcal mol 1, accounting for the large difference between this entry and the previous one. The value given is for a solid —> solid reaction. 

Pew (26) found digestibility of hardwoods by cellulases improved markedly by pretreatment with aqueous NaOH the effect was considerably more pronounced with hardwoods than with softwoods. Stranks (35) reported that the in vitro rate of digestion of hardwoods by rumen-inhabiting bacteria, measured by succinic acid production, was markedly increased by pretreatment with 1-5% NaOH, whereas softwoods were unaffected by the treatment. The effect of NaOH in improving the digestibility of straw has long been known (5). 

Succinic Acid Production from Cheese Whey using Actinobacillus succinogenes 130 Z... 

The objectives of this study were to develop fermentative protocol for succinic acid production from cheese whey by A. succinogenes and study the effect of environmental and nutritional factors such as external CO2 supply, pH, inoculum size, and initial whey concentration on succinic acid production. 

In the previous studies, it was reported that initial concentration of carbon source could influence the cell growth and succinic acid production throughout the fermentation [20]. The effect of initial cheese whey concentrations on succinic acid formation was shown in Fig. 1 Maximum succinic acid concentration of 27.9 g/L was obtained at 48 h when the initial concentration of cheese whey was 100 g/L. The succinic acid concentration increased rapidly from 6 to 24 h corresponding to the rapid consumption of lactose during this period. 

Initial cheese whey concentration had a significant effect on the succinic acid yield (P< 0.03) and productivity (P<0.02). After 48 h of fermentation, the highest succinic acid yield of 0.57 was obtained at initial cheese whey concentration of 50 g/L. The succinic acid productivity increased from 0.44 to 0.58 g h L when the initial whey concentration increased from 50 to 100 g/L (Fig. 2). The highest succinic acid productivity of 0.95 g h L was obtained at 24 h with the initial whey concentration of 75 g/L, while the productivity... 

The effect of pH on succinic acid production using cheese whey as carbon source by A. succinogenes 130 Z was shown in Fig. 3. The concentration of succinic acid increased from 19.1 to 21.2 g/L with pH increase from 6.2 to 6.8, while the succinic acid concentration at pH 6.8 and 7.2 were very close. The succinic acid yield and productivity at pH 6.8 and 7.2 were also very close, while that at pH 6.2 were much lower (Fig. 4). However, the effects of pH ranging from 6,2 to 7.2 on the succinic acid yield (P>0.13) and productivity (P>035) were not significant. Although similar succinic acid productivity and yield were obtained at pH 6.8 and 7.2, more alkaline is needed to maintain a higher pH during fermentation run. In this study, the preferred pH for succinic acid production from cheese whey was 6.8. 

The effect of inoculum size on succinic acid production is shown in Fig. 5. Higher succinic acid concentration was observed at the inoculum size of 10% than that at 2 and 5%... 

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%)...

Under anoxic condition of succinic acid production, phoshpoenolp3nuvate (PEP), one of the central intermediates during mixed acid fermentation, is converted by two enzymes in A. succinogenes 130Z named PEP carboxykinase (PPCK) and pyruvate kinase [16,23]. PPCK is a C02-fixing enzyme that converts PEP to oxaloacetate toward the flux to the formation of succinic acid [20, 23]. Pymvate kinase converts PEP to pyruvate, which is consequently converted to end fermentation by-products such as acetic acid, formic acid, and ethanol [16]. 

SAN 10] San K.Y., Bennett G., Sanchez A., Mutant E. CoU strain with increased succinic acid production. Patent US7790416,2010. 

H. (2008) An efficient succinic acid production process in a metaboli-cally engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum strain. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol, 81 (3), 459-464. 

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