Succinic microbial production

Diacids. The microbial generation of mahc, fumaric, and succinic acid essentially imphes Krebs cycle pathway engineering of biocatalytic organisms to overproduce oxaloacetate as the primary four-carbon diacid that subsequently undergoes reduction and dehydration processes (Scheme 2.9). The use of these four-carbon diacids as intermediate chemicals and the state of their desirable microbial production is briefly outlined. 

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. 

Succinic acid currently is manufactured by chemical processes (1). Many attempts have been made to develop a fermentation process for the production of succinic acid from renewable feedstocks such as corn-derived glucose. A number of patents have been issued on the microbial production of succinic acid (4-7). However, none of these has been applied toward the commercial production of succinic acid. 

Fumaric, succinic, and malic acid could replace the petroleum-derived maleic anhydride. The market for maleic anhydride is huge, whereas the current market for fumaric acid is small owing to its price limitations. Once a competitive microbial production process for fumaric acid is established, its market will likely increase. 

Beauprez, J.J., De Mey, M., and Soetaert, W.K. (2010) Microbial succinic acid production natural versus metabolic engineered producers. Process Biochem., 45, 1103-1114. 

Microbial Succinic Acid Production Using Different Bacteria Species... 

The downstream domain of the microbial production of FA has imposed a major economical barrier to entry into commercial trade for this multifaceted organic acid. As compared to the well-established downstream strategies for different fermented organic acids such as lactic acid, succinic acid, and citric acid, separation techniques for FA from the fermented broth have not met the conditions for scaling up in both economical and technical aspects. 

Agarwal, L., Isar, J., Meghwanshi, G.K., Saxena, R.K., 2007. Influence of environmental and nutritional factors on succinic acid production and enzymes of reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle from Enterococcus flavescens. Enzyme and Microbial Technology 40 (4), 629-636. 

Hendrik, G.B., Willie, N., 2014. Succinic acid production with Actinobadllus succinogenes rate and yield analysis of chemostat and biofilm cultures. Brink and Nicol Microbial Cell Factories 13, 111. 

It has been proposed that the ruminal microbial ecosystem be manipulated to improve the efficiency of converting feeds to products consumable by humans. In so doing, the organic acids may replace antibiotics and be added to feed for ruminants. Fortunately, application in ruminants is less extensive than in other farm animals and organic acids such as aspartate, citric acid, succinic acid, or pyruvic acid have been investigated and proposed as potential agents for use in ruminants. The advantages of these substances in the rumen are described as (Castillo et al., 2004) ... 

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