Novel membrane-based biotechnological alternative process for succinic acid production and chemical synthesis of bio-based poly (butylene succinate)

Succinic acid was produced in a novel membrane-based fermentation and separation integrated system. With this integrated system, product inhibition was alleviated by removing acids and replenishing fresh broth. High cell density maintain for a longer time from 75 to 130 h and succinic acid concentration increased from 53 to 73 g/L. In the developed separation process, succinic acid was crystallized at a recovery of 85–90%. The purity of the obtained succinic acid crystals reached 99.4% as found by HPLC and 1H NMR analysis. A crystallization experiment indicated that among by-products glucose had a negative effect on succinic acid crystallization. Poly (butylene succinate) (PBS) was synthesized using the purified succinic acid and 1H NMR analysis confirmed that the composition of the synthesized PBS is in agreement with that from petro-based succinic acid.