The Quest to Commercialize Biobased Succinic Acid

High-priced petroleum brings the finite nature of this resource to a striking reality. Out of
necessity comes research into alternative fuels and the myriad of materials made from
petroleum. Since the mid-1990s, succinic acid has garnered interest as a petroleum
alternative for the manufacture of everything from de-icers to pesticides.
By Jessica Ebert

In 2004, the U.S. DOE released a report identifying 12 chemicals that could be produced
from sugars, most through microbial fermentation. These building blocks were of interest
because they could be converted into various high-value biobased chemicals and materials.
At the top of the list was succinic acid, a four-carbon molecule with a chemical structure
similar to maleic anhydride. Maleic anhydride is a petroleum-derived substance that provides
a chemical feedstock for food and pharmaceutical products, surfactants and detergents,
plastics, clothing fibers, and biodegradable solvents. Because the two chemicals are so much
alike and succinic acid is made by all living things through a natural fermentation of sugars,
biomass-derived succinic acid could serve as an attractive replacement for maleic anhydride
and a platform chemical for the synthesis of a multitude of compounds. "That is the beauty
of succinic acid," explains Susanne Kleff, senior scientist for MBI International, formerly
Michigan Biotechnology Institute. "First you want that four-carbon platform," she says.
"Second, any chemical you can make that is part of the central metabolism of an organism
always implies that you can make lots of it and that you can make it easily." Although
currently elusive, a competitively priced route for the "green" production of succinic acid
could open a menagerie of new markets for the chemical.
Much of the research into biobased succinic acid originated in government agencies,
particularly the DOE, however, the attention of these institutions is now consumed with
meeting fuel standards. "Some government agencies' emphasis on biobased products has
lessened because of more pressing energy and fuel mandates," explains Gene Petersen, DOE
project officer and chemist. "The question is will the private sector step up to the plate?"
The answer is yes, say representatives from two companies who agreed to speak
withBiomass Magazine about each company's quest to make competitively priced, biobased
succinic acid a reality.
The Prize
As quests go, this one may not be as dramatic as destroying a ring and ridding war-torn
Middle-Earth of a supernatural evil as in the "Lord of the Rings" epic. However, the eventual
reward reaped by the potential heroes-a market estimated at more than $1.3 billion per
year-is not too shabby a prize for overcoming the challenges to commercialize the means to
produce green succinic acid. Although currently available succinic acid, which is made from
butane, a four-carbon petrochemical, serves a relatively small world market of about 15,000
metric tons per year, the potential market for a biobased form of the chemical could be well
over 100 times that amount. "The extent of market penetration depends mainly on the price
competitiveness of biobased succinic acid relative to the petrochemical alternatives," Kleff
says. "There is also more interest in producing polymers from monomers produced via a
green route."
The bounty from this potential gold mine lies in the usefulness of succinic acid as a building

block for a plethora of secondary chemicals. Kleff outlines three major potential markets for
green succinic acid. The greatest of these is as a biobased replacement for maleic
anhydride, which currently serves a global market of about 1.65 million tons per year.
Second is the more than 1.6 million pounds per year global market for polymers currently
derived from butane. The smallest market of about 100 million pounds per year is for
pyrrolidinones, which are used to make green solvents and eco-friendly chemicals for water
treatment.
"There are all kinds of derivative markets where right now succinic acid is not used because
it's too expensive compared with petrochemicals," explains Dilum Dunuwila, vice president of
business development at Diversified Natural Products Inc. (DNP) an industrial biotechnology
company. "As a business we have to get to the point where we are economically competitive
with petrochemical pricing," he says. "We are getting there."
The final prize and incentives for action are well defined but how will they be achieved?
The Journey
MBI, established in 1981 by the Michigan High Technology Task Force, has a history of
developing biobased chemicals and agricultural feedstocks into chemicals derived from
fermentation processes. In 1996, the company patented the unique bacterium it isolated for
production of succinic acid from sugars. MBI scientists-knowing that the rumen, one of the
four compartments of the bovine stomach, was a warm, voluminous holding vat devoid of
oxygen and brimming with microbes that digest and ferment an endless supply of wellmasticated feedstuffs-collected rumen samples and isolated a novel succinic acid producer.
"The rumen is an environment where you would expect to find an organism that produces
succinic acid," Kleff explains. In addition to conditions prime for fermentation, "the
environment is high in carbon dioxide, which we incorporate into our product," she adds.
"So, in contrast to almost everything else other than photosynthesis, we make a product in
which we incorporate CO2 (carbon dioxide)." Because carbon dioxide is a byproduct of
ethanol production, the synthesis of biobased succinic acid could be linked to ethanol
plants.
The biggest challenge thus far for the MBI team, other than working with a microbe that was
unknown at the time, was determining how to recover succinic acid from the fermentation
broth, Kleff explains. "In contrast to alcohols, which you can just distill away from your other
components, you cannot do that with succinic acid," she says. For the last 10 years, MBI
researchers have characterized the bacterium, dubbed Actinobacillus succinogenes,
identified the microbe's optimal growth conditions and fermentation products, and
optimized methods to improve the strain, minimized byproducts, maximized the yield and
purity of succinic acid and recovered the molecule. "Our research has been focused on
strain- and fermentation-process improvements, on recovery methods and on integrating the
process package for robust and economical production," Kleff says.
At this point, MBI has scaled-up the bench-top fermentation process for the production of
succinic acid to a 1,000-gallon fermentation process at its pilot plant in Lansing, Mich. "When
you make it to that stage you've passed a lot of hurdles," Kleff says. However, this is not the
size that could supply the market with significant amounts of biobased succinic acid, she
says. To that end, MBI has partnered with another company to commercialize the technology.
No further details about this partnership were available at press time.
A second company that is moving toward large-scale production of biomass-derived succinic
acid is DNP, formerly Applied CarboChemicals. Through licenses, the company has acquired
the intellectual property to transform crop-based sugars into succinic acid, Dunuwila

explains. Like MBI, DNP's process for making succinic acid starts with a microbial
fermentation. However, DNP uses a strain of Escherichia coli developed at the DOE in the
mid-1990s as part of the agency's Alternative Feedstocks Program. Under normal conditions,
"E. coli ferments sugars to produce a mixture of acids," Dunuwila explains. "However, DOE's
efforts led to a bug that is optimized to produce succinic acid and only a minimum amount of
byproducts."
DNP has also developed methods for separating and purifying the succinic acid. Dunuwila
explains that one of the biggest challenges his team has encountered in terms of separation
is that compared with petrochemical feedstocks, which are concentrated, the fermentation
output from biobased processes is very dilute. "Processing that dilute stream economically to
produce succinic acid can be a challenge because of the energy required to get rid of all that
water," Dunuwila says.
Currently, DNP, along with its French partner Agro Industrie Recherches et Dveloppements
(ARD), has a research and pilot facility in Pomacle, France. Here, the company's technologies
are being optimized to make them more economically viable by minimizing byproducts and
waste, and maximizing output. By late-2008 to early-2009, the two companies plan to bring
a 5,000-metric-ton demonstration plant on line. Although this capacity is no where near what
the eventual market would be, "In part, our goal for the demo plant is to show that we can
economically produce succinic acid," Dunuwila says. In addition, "the demonstration plant
will give us an opportunity to provide samples for testing and establish business relationships
to help us move forward toward building large-scale plants worldwide," he says.
"There are several companies and institutions active in biobased succinic acid [research and
development]," Dunuwila says. "But as far as we know, DNP along with ARD is the only group
that has announced the construction of a production-scale plant. In terms of technology, I
think we are the furthest along in the quest for commercializing succinic acid."
So there it stands. Our heroes may not be wielding swords, clubs, or bows and arrows but the
pipettes and bacterial cultures they brandish seem to leave them well-quipped with the
tools, knowledge and wherewithal needed to bring the journey to commercialize succinic
acid to a promising end-or to another beginning perhaps?

Succinic acid as a substitute for existing molecules.

Says Myriant: We are currently focused on commercializing and producing biosuccinic acid. There is currently
a small existing merchant market for succinic acid for use in pigments, solvents, detergents, metal plating and
PBS polymers. In addition to targeting the existing succinic acid market, we plan to sell our biosuccinic acid as
a drop-in or replacement chemical in the following target markets:
Butanediol, or BDO, is a high-value chemical intermediate with end markets in a wide variety of everyday
products, including engineered plastics, biodegradable food packaging, adhesive tapes, foams, fibers such as
elastane (better known as Spandex and Lycra) and coatings. Approximately 27% of global BDO production
capacity utilizes a proprietary production process licensed by Davywe are negotiating a joint development
agreementto replace their petroleum-derived MAN with our biosuccinic acid.

Our biosuccinic acid can be used to substitute for adipic acid in these and other applications. Several
prospective customers have already tested our biosuccinic acid as an adipic acid replacement, and one
customer has signed a supply contract with us for that purpose.
Phthalic anhydride is a major chemical intermediate used as a raw material to produce plasticizers, coatings
and a wide variety of everyday plastics used in food wrap films, flexible PVC piping, flexible wire jackets and
toys. Several prospective customers have already tested our biosuccinic acid as a phthalates replacement,
and one customer has signed a supply contract with us for that purpose.
Lactic acid can be converted, through a process called polymerization, into polylactic acid, or PLA. PLA is
used in a range of everyday products, including packaging, apparel, bottles, durable goods, films, bedding,
non-wovens and plastic dining utensils. The market for PLA is currently limited because conventional PLA
cannot be used in applications requiring heat resistance. Our D() lactic acid can be usedto address the
thermal stability problemMarket forecasts indicate that the addressable market for D() lactic acid will
eventually exceed one billion pounds.