Catalytic Upgrading of Fermentation‐Derived Organic Acids

Abstract

The production of organic acids in low-cost, high-efficiency fermentation processes makes available a new route to chemical production from biomass. Because of their multiple functional groups and high reactivity, organic acids can undergo a variety of reactions that are effectively catalyzed by inorganic heterogeneous or homogeneous catalysts. Lactic acid and succinic acid, in particular, are approaching large-scale production via fermentation and show excellent promise as feedstocks for catalytic conversion routes such as hydrogenation, dehydration, or condensation. A number of catalytic conversion pathways of organic acids are potentially competitive with petroleum-based routes in the current economic environment, particularly when integrated into existing biomass/crop processing schemes. This article reviews some of the key reaction pathways available using fermentation-derived organic acids as feedstocks and presents recent results from the authors' lab on succinate hydrogenation to 1,4-butanediol and tetrahydrofuran. By a judicious choice of support properties and reaction conditions, it is possible to achieve yields of either of these two products in excess of 80%.

Principles of Heterogeneous Catalysis

“…For example, heterogeneous catalysts have numerous industrial applications in the chemical, food, pharmaceutical, automobile and petrochemical industries [1][2][3][4][5], and it has been estimated that 90% of all chemical processes use heterogeneous catalysts [6]. Heterogeneous catalysis is also finding new applications in emerging areas such as fuel cells [7][8][9], green chemistry [10][11][12], nanotechnology [13], and biorefining/biotechnology [14][15][16][17][18]. Indeed, continued research into heterogeneous catalysis is required to allow us to address increasingly complex environmental and energy issues facing our industrialized society.…”

Utilization of Molasses Sugar for Lactic Acid Production by Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii Mutant Uc-3 in Batch Fermentation

“…It could become a commodity chemical for the production of lactate esters, propylene glycol, propylene oxide, acrylic acid, 2,3-pentanedione, propanoic acidacetaldehyde, and dilactide (3,15). It has also been increasing in importance as a feedstock for manufacture of polylactic acid (PLA), which could be a good substitute for synthetic plastic derived from petroleum feedstock.…”

Succinic Acid: Technology Development and Commercialization

“…Development of catalysts for conversion of succinic acid to BDO, GBL and THF has been an area of strong interest and active research, especially for catalysis in aqueous media. Catalysts for conversion of succinic acid to pyrrolidones have also been extensively studied [47,48]. High-value rare metal-containing catalysts normally are used in BDO synthesis.…”