Developed and emerging 1,4-butanediol commercial production strategies: forecasting the current status and future possibility

Abstract

1,4-Butanediol (1,4-BDO) is a valuable industrial chemical that is primarily produced via several energy-intensive petrochemical processes based on fossil-based raw materials, leading to issues related to: non-renewability, environmental contamination, and high production costs. 1,4-BDO is used in many chemical reactions to develop a variety of useful, valuable products, such as: polyurethane, Spandex intermediates, and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), a water-soluble polymer with numerous personal care and pharmaceutical uses. In recent years, to satisfy the growing need for 1,4-BDO, there has been a major shift in focus to sustainable bioproduction via microorganisms using: recombinant strains, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, enzyme engineering, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence-guided algorithms. This article discusses the current status of the development of: various chemical and biological production techniques for 1,4-BDO, advances in biological pathways for 1,4-BDO biosynthesis, prospects for future production strategies, and the difficulties associated with environmentally friendly and bio-based commercial production strategies.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• 1,4-Butanediol
• biosynthesis
• fermentation
• engineered microorganisms
• synthetic biology

Acknowledgements

All the structures have been adopted from PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, and modified for the creation of the images. In addition, we are grateful to all our laboratory colleagues and research personnel for their helpful advice and assistance.

Author contributions

Pradeep Kumar: conceptualization, writing-original draft, and writing-review and editing.

Kwon-Young Choi: conceptualization, supervision, and finalizing the draft manuscript.

HyunA Park, Yong Yuk, Hayan Kim, Jihwan Jang, Raviteja Pagolu, SeoA Park, and Chanseo Yeo: review and proof reading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Not applicable.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), South Korea [Grant Number: 2021R1A2C1007519] and by the R&D Program of MOTIE/KEIT, South Korea [Grant Numbers: 20018132 and 20014350].