Hydroxy acids from sugars FuBio 2 workshop Group work results

2 FuBio and a Finnish bio-economy Joint research 1 Joint research 2 Products from dissolved cellulose Production of hydroxy acids and products thereof “Wood products” (with FWR Oy) “Wood energy” (with Cleen Oy) “Wood health” (with Salwe Oy) Building blocks of the Finnish bio-economy FuBio 2

No sense to start R&D for production of lactic, succinic, itaconic, fumaric and malic acid  technologies to produce these are already at pilot or commercial scale Glycolic acid; Merja Penttilä: Glycolic acid is, yet, fairly easy in respect to IPR; Mika Härkönen: Interesting polymer properties; Glyoxylate: perhaps interesting for dissolution of cellulose Itaconic acid; perhaps from other sugars (not glucose) 3-Hydroxy butyrate (hydroxy valerate): LAB-based technology available through Aalto; Hemi-based sugar acids: biotech-technology for xylonic acid developed at VTT, also other similar sugar acids (done within CoE White Biotech-Green Chemistry); Catalytic routes will be studied at University of Helsinki (Leskelä). End products (incl. purity) 3

Possibilities: – Fermentation from C5 or C6 – Enzymatic? – Acetic acid  chloroacetic acid  – Acetylene  trichloroethylene  Fermentation: – Bacterium; Con: not acid tolerant  product as salt; Roquette & Metabolic Explorer working on this topic – Yeast; pH can go down to app 2; Innovation notification in FuBio 1 – Mould ; pH can go down to app 2; Also studied in FuBio 1 Routes to glycolic acid 4

C5 and C6 sugars can be used Yeast and mould can ferment most C5 and C6 (S. cerevisiae ferment only C6) Industrial sources: – Molasses (until lignocellulose technology is ready); crystalline sugar at app. 0.4 EUR/kg; molasses should be a little cheaper – FibreEtOH (mainly cellulose, i.e. C6, some C5) – Joint research 2 PHWE R&D GA: Raw materials 5

If molasses: cells, GA, Na-GA, residual nutrients, acetic acid? Step 1: solid-liquid separation Step 1: Esterification, distillation, etc. GA: Purification & by-products 6

In Finland – Metabolic engineering (VTT) – Enzymology (UEF, VTT) – Fermentation processes (VTT, Aalto, Oulu) – DSP (VTT, Oulu, JY, Danisco/Finex, LUT) Lacking competences – ?? GA: Competences 7

Possibilities: – Fermentation from C5 or C6 – Enzymatic? – X? Fermentation: – Bacterium; Several bacteria; Aalto LAB-technology a new approach – Yeast; some groups active – Mould; ? Routes to 3-hydroxy butyrate 8

C5 and C6 sugars can be used (bacteria) Industrial sources: – Molasses (until lignocellulose technology is ready) – FibreEtOH (mainly cellulose, some C5) – Joint research 2 PHWE R&D HB: Raw materials 9

If molasses: cells, HB, Na-HB, nutrients, actetic acid? Step 1: solid-liquid separation Step 1: Esterification, distillation, etc. HB: Purification & by-products 10

In Finland – Metabolic engineering (VTT; Aalto) – Enzymology (UEF, VTT) – Fermentation processes (VTT, Aalto, OY) – DSP (VTT, OY, JY, Danisco/Finex, LUT) Lacking competences – ?? HB: Competences 11