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Catalytic Upgrading of Fermentation‐Derived Organic Acids
Author(s) -
Varadarajan Sriram,
Miller Dennis J.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
biotechnology progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.572
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6033
pISSN - 8756-7938
DOI - 10.1021/bp9900965
Subject(s) - fermentation , biomass (ecology) , catalysis , chemistry , organic chemistry , succinic acid , reactivity (psychology) , biology , agronomy , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
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%.