Concerns about global warming and increasing oil prices not only impact the transportation fuel sector but also the chemical industry which mostly relies on petroleum-based feedstocks.
This is forcing a global industry to search for sustainable solutions to replace oil-based compounds by renewable
building blocks. In 2004, the US Department of Energy (DoE) identified chemical compounds that can be used as building blocks for production of fuels and chemicals that can be derived from sugars via biological or chemical conversion.
In this analysis, malic acid was grouped together with succinic and fumaric acid to form the group of 1,4- diacidic acids.
This group was selected to be among the 12 “top value-added chemicals frombiomass” that could serve as an economic driver for biorefineries in the post-oil age.
As malic acid is a commodity type chemical, it needs to be produced in very high yields and with high productivities.