Fermentative succinate production: an emerging technology to replace the traditional petrochemical processes

Abstract

Succinate is a valuable platform chemical for multiple applications. Confronted with the exhaustion of fossil energy resources, fermentative succinate production from renewable biomass to replace the traditional petrochemical process is receiving an increasing amount of attention. During the past few years, the succinate-producing process using microbial fermentation has been made commercially available by the joint efforts of researchers in different fields. In this review, recent attempts and experiences devoted to reduce the production cost of biobased succinate are summarized, including strain improvement, fermentation engineering, and downstream processing. The key limitations and challenges faced in current microbial production systems are also proposed.

Figure 1

Succinate market share by geography in the year of 2010.

Figure 2

Anaerobic (a) and aerobic (b) metabolic pathways for the biosynthesis of succinate. Unidirectional arrows indicate that the reactions are irreversible while two-directional arrows indicate that the reactions are reversible. Enzymes whose genes are deleted are indicated by “X” across arrows. The abbreviations for the enzymes catalyzing these reactions are ack, acetate kinase; acn, aconitase; adh, alcohol/acetaldehyde dehydrogenase; cs, citrate synthase; frd, fumarate reductase; fum, fumarase; icd, isocitrate dehydrogenase; icl, isocitrate lyase; kgd, α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase; ldh, lactate dehydrogenase; mae, malic enzyme; mdh, malate dehydrogenase; ms, malate synthase; pck, PEP carboxykinase; pfl, pyruvate-formate lyase; pox, pyruvate oxidase; ppc, PEP carboxylase; pta, phosphotransacetylase; pyc, pyruvate carboxylase; pyk, pyruvate kinase; scs, succinyl-CoA synthetase; and sdh, succinate dehydrogenase.

Figure 3

Strategic approaches for the separation and purification of succinate from the fermentation broth.