Process Integration of Fermentation and Catalysis for the Production of Succinic Acid Derivatives

Clara Delhomme, doctoral thesis Technische Universität München, 2011

One strategy to reduce the costs of the production of chemicals from renewable resources consists in combining fermentation and catalysis to avoid the expensive purification of the bio-derived intermediate. This process option was evaluated using succinic acid produced from fermentation as an example. The use of different homogeneous and immobilized metal complex catalysts as well as heterogeneous clay catalysts was analyzed for the aqueous hydrogenation of succinic acid. For the esterification of succinic acid, a reactive extraction process was investigated with different biological and chemical catalysts. After the optimization of the reaction conditions, succinic acid could be directly esterified in an aqueous fermentation broth with the homogeneous catalyst dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid with yields up to 94 % using 1-octanol. Finally, the produced diesters could be easily separated from the reaction system.

Publications

• Delhomme C, Schaper LA, Zhang-Preße M, Raudaschl-Sieber G, Weuster-Botz D, Kühn FE (2013): Catalytic hydrogenation of levulinic acid in aqueous phase. J Organomet Chem 724: 297-299.
• Delhomme C, Goh S, Kühn F, Weuster-Botz D (2012): Esterification of bio-based succinic acid in biphasic systems: Comparison of chemical and biological catalysts. J Mol Cat B Enz 80: 39-47.
• Delhomme C, Weuster-Botz D, Kühn FE (2009): Succinic acid from renewable resources as a C4 building-block chemical - a review of the catalytic possibilities in aqueous media. Green Chem 11 (2009): 13-26.