Production of multifunctional organic acids from renewable resources.

Recently, the microbial production of multifunctional organic acid has received interest due to their increased use in the food industry and their potential as raw materials for the manufacture of biodegradable polymers. Certain species of microorganisms produce significant quantities of organic acids in high yields under specific cultivation conditions from biomass-derived carbohydrates. The accumulation of some acids, such as fumaric, malic and succinic acid, are believed to involve CO2-fixation which gives high yields of products. The application of special fermentation techniques and the methods for downstream processing of products are described. Techniques such as simultaneous fermentation and product recovery and downstream processing are likely to occupy an important role in the reduction of production costs. Finally, some aspects of process design and current industrial production processes are discussed.