Biochemical Production and Separation of Carboxylic Acids for Biorefinery Applications

Carboxylic acids are traditionally produced from fossil fuels and have significant applications in the chemical, pharmaceutical, food, and fuel industries. Significant progress has been made in replacing such fossil fuel sources used for production of carboxylic acids with sustainable and renewable biomass resources. However, the merits and demerits of each carboxylic acid processing platform are dependent on the application of the final product in the industry. There are a number of studies that indicate that separation processes account for over 30% of the total processing costs in such processes. This review focuses on the sustainable processing of biomass resources to produce carboxylic acids. The primary focus of the review will be on a discussion of and comparison between existing biochemical processes for producing lower-chain fatty acids such as acetic-, propionic-, butyric-, and lactic acids. The significance of these acids stems from the recent progress in catalytic upgrading to produce biofuels apart from the current applications of the carboxylic acids in the food, pharmaceutical, and plastics sectors. A significant part of the review will discuss current state-of-art of techniques for separation and purification of these acids from fermentation broths for further downstream processing to produce high-value products.