Production of 3-Hydroxypropionaldehyde from Glycerol

Abstract

Hydroxypropionaldehyde is a precursor to acrolein, which can be used as an intermediate for making acrylic acid and a variety of other useful industrial chemicals. Conversion of glycerol, a renewable resource, to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde was attempted via action of glycerol dehydrase isolated from Lactobacillus sp. strain NRRL B-1720. This method, however, was unsatisfactory because enzyme activity was lost within 60 to 90 min after the reaction initiation. Fermentation of glycerol by whole cells of Klebsiella pneumoniae NRRL B-199 in the presence of optimal semicarbazide hydrochloride proved more effective. Using this technique, glycerol solutions of 30 g/liter yielded 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde solutions of 13.1 g/liter. Thus, a conversion efficiency equal to 55% of the theoretical maximum was realized.

3-Hydroxypropionaldehyde: applications and perspectives of biotechnological production

“…To date, six genera of bacteria that are able to ferment glycerol into 3-HPA have been identified: Bacillus (Voisenet 1914a); Klebsiella (Aerobacter) (Abeles et al 1960;Reymolds et al 1939;Slininger et al 1983); Citrobacter (Mickelson and Werkman 1940); Enterobacter (Barbirato et al 1996); Clostridium (Humphreys 1924); and Lactobacillus (Mills et al 1954;Serjak et al 1954). The enzyme responsible for the formation of 3-HPA from glycerol, glycerol dehydratase, is known to be cobamide-dependent (Abeles et al 1960;Smiley and Sobolov 1962;Sobolov and Smiley 1960;Toraya 2000).…”

Optimizing aerobic conversion of glycerol to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde

“…Our results in Table 2 indicated both instantaneous and overall yields to be constant over the range of biomass concentration studied. In addition, Slininger et al (19) noted that increasing the semicarbazide concentration above 26.8 g/liter did not in-crease 3-HPA yield, but decreased it in cultures having biomass concentrations in excess of 3.3 g/liter. Thus, the observed experimental evidence does not support a theory that the semicarbazide concentration was limiting either the rate or extent of 3-HPA accumulation.…”

“…Induction patterns appear to be modulated by substrate type as well as oxygen. Fermentation studies on 3-HPA production by this strain have indicated that glycerol induces dehydratase activity under either aerobic or anaerobic growth conditions (1,19). Enzymology data have shown that higher dehydratase activities are present in aerobically grown cells than in anaerobically grown cells when glycerol is the substrate.…”

“…Abeles et al (1) originally noted that cells of ATCC 8724 would accumulate the intermediate 3-HPA instead of TMG if glycerol was accompanied by semicarbazide. Using this technique, Slininger et al (19) measured 55% of the glycerol supplied to be converted to 3-HPA. Although it is known that semicarbazide promotes accumulation of 3-HPA, a mechanism describing how it does so has not been proven.…”

Production of 3-hydroxypropionate from biomass

“…The derivatives of 3HP include 1, 3-propanediol, malonic acid, acrylic acid, acryl amide, ethyl 3HP and poly (hydroxypropionate) which have many uses in day-to-day life. Also, 3HP can be used as antifreeze, food preservative, and food additive andKonings et al 2004)(Sobolov and Smiley 1960;Patricia J. Slininger 1983;Talarico, Casas et al 1988). In 2001, formation of low concentration of 3-hydroxypropionate from glycerol, via 3-hydroxypropanal was demonstrated with genetically modified E. coli expressing glycerol dehydratase from Klebsiella pneumoniae and a non specific aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALD4) from S. cerevisiae(Suthers 2001).In this study, E. coli was genetically modified but only a single enzyme malonyl-CoA reductase was introduced into E. coli DH5α using vector.…”