Abstract
The increasing scarcity of fossil raw materials, together with the need to develop new processes and technology based on renewable sources, and the need to dispose of an increasing amount of biomass-derived waste, have boosted the concept of biorefineries. Both 1G and 2G biorefineries are focused on the obtention of biofuels, chemicals, materials, food and feed from biomass, a renewable resource. Fumaric acid, and most compounds involved in the Kreb cycle, are considered key platform chemicals, not only for being acidulants and additives in the food industry, but also for their prospective use as monomers. This review is focused on the biotechnological processes based on fungi, mainly of the Rhizopus genus, whose main product is fumaric acid, on the process conditions, the bioreactors and modes of operation and on the purification of the acid once it is produced.
Highlights
In these first years of the XXI century, increasing concerns on the availability of fossil resources for material and energy supply are surging due to the reduction of reserves, with an increasing technological challenge to obtain such resources [1,2]
Fumaric acid is produced via biotechnological processes at a mass yield around 88% starting from glucose
Succinic acid is known to have an adequate price (1.17 $/kg) in comparison to its petrochemical counterpart (2.86 $/kg) for the Myriant process [91], fumaric acid is only produced at the present time from benzene or from butanes
Summary
In these first years of the XXI century, increasing concerns on the availability of fossil resources for material and energy supply are surging due to the reduction of reserves, with an increasing technological challenge to obtain such resources (a good number of petroleum fields are working on secondary recovery conditions, while several tertiary recovery technologies are under development, like enhanced oil recovery and unconventional oil and gas recovery by using microbial surfactants and nanoparticles, for example) [1,2]. Bio-based classical monomers, like bio-ethylene, are an opportunity to resume its activity using biomass-based classical monomers [8], and dicarboxylic acids and hydroxyacids are an opportunity to develop new biodegradable polymers that reduce the impact on the environment, while ensuring a good technical performance and economic feasibility. This has been proved for lactic and succinic acids and it is under development for fumaric and itaconic acids [9,10]. Profound review on psoriasis was recently written by Smith [24,25]
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