Bioreactors for succinic acid production processes

Abstract

Succinic acid (SA) has been recognized as one of the most important bio-based building block chemicals due to its numerous potential applications. Fermentation SA production from renewable carbohydrate feedstocks can have the economic and sustainability potential to replace petroleum-based production in the future, not only for existing markets, but also for new larger volume markets. Design and operation of bio-reactors play a key role. During the last 20 years, many different fermentation strategies for SA production have been described in literature, including utilization of immobilized biocatalysts, integrated fermentation and separation systems and batch, fed-batch, and continuous operation modes. This review is an overview of different fermentation process design developed over the past decade and provides a perspective on remaining challenges for an economically feasible succinate production processes. The analysis stresses the idea of improving the efficiency of the fermentation stage by improving bioreactor design and by increasing bioreactor performance.

Keywords:

• Succinic acid
• bioreactor
• fermentation
• batch and continuous process
• biorefinery

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by the Ministero dell’Istruzione, delll’Università e della Ricerca project “Development of green technologies for production of BIOchemicals and their use in preparation and industrial application of POLImeric materials from agricultural biomasses cultivated in a sustainable way in Campania Region – BIOPOLIS” PON03PE_00107_1/1.