Commercialized Succinic Acid Manufacturing Process to Support Lower-Cost Bioproducts

January 29, 2002

DOE's Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT), Applied CarboChemicals, Inc. (ACC), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNL), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) collaborated to commercialize bio-derived succinic acid as a new platform chemical based on renewable raw materials. It is energy efficient and environmentally friendly, leverages advances in DNA and fermentation technology that significantly lowers production costs and establishes a basis for the progression to commercial manufacturing operations.

Succinic acid is a dicarboxylic acid that is produced in relatively small volumes through the conversion o f petrochemicals. Currently, very high manufacturing costs limit succinic acid to low volume, specialty applications. Succinic acid is a highly functional chemical with a potentially broad application range in many diverse industries. To promote its use, the ACC team has combined biotechnology, efficient separation technology and novel chemicals synthesis to help enable economical manufacture of a broad range of products. The use of abundant and inexpensive feedstocks such as corn and other grains addresses the market demand for lower cost "green" alternatives to petrochemicals-based products.

The succinic acid platform technology provides many benefits for industry such as:

renewable resource technology
efficient process technology
waste treating bio-degradable product
limited waste emissions
superior manufacturing costs
small economics of scale
a broadly commissioned production organism
succinic acid versatility
environmentally safe
environmentally friendly
green solvents
herbicide enhancements

ACC, located in East Lansing, Michigan, is a development stage, specialty chemical company whose core business strategy is focused on the commercialization of a portfolio of high-value specialty chemicals from succinic acid.

For more information, please visit www.oit.doe.gov/agriculture/ or call the OIT Clearinghouse at 1-800-862-2086.