Towards the development of efficient, economic and environmentally friendly downstream processing for bio-based succinic acid

Abstract

Succinic acid (SA) is among the top value-added platform chemicals that can be produced from renewable resources including organic wastes via microbial fermentation. Extensive studies have been witnessed in the last decades on the feedstock pretreatment and fermentation processes for SA production. However, the recovery and purification of SA from fermentation broth, dubbed downstream processing (DSP), has been overlooked. The major challenge in the DSP of bio-based SA is associated with the availability of low concentration of SA in the complex fermentation broth. Hence, the current study was systematically designed to assess recent efforts in the development of efficient, economic and sustainable DSP for bio-based SA ranging from small-scale to large-scale production schemes. This review presents a critical discussion of SA with regards to bio-based and petrochemical production routes, recent attempts of DSP, commercial-scale production, techno-economic analyses, as well as challenges and prospects in the DSP of SA. In general, the effectiveness the DSP of bio-based SA can be evaluated in terms of process efficiency, economics, and environmental aspects. To this end, the current review is believed to provide a comprehensive up-to-date insights to build a competitive SA bioproducing industries that could assist the quest towards the development of circular economy and sustainable future.