Organic Acids: Key Facilitators of the Bio-economy

Organic Acids: Key Facilitators of the Bio-economy? Recent declines in oil prices and the failure of start-up biofuel processes to meet production cost targets have increased the interest in producing value added chemicals from biomass as coproducts. The vision is that these products can leverage the production of fuel by providing revenue to supplement the lower value fuel products. Replacing fossil fuel derived chemicals with renewables is itself a societal goal. Early in the biomass utilization effort, organic acids derived from sugars or cellulose decomposition were identified as attractive target molecules.

A marketsandmarkets.com study estimated the market for renewable derived organic acids will grow to 9.29 Billion USD by 2021.   However, the long term market potential is much greater. Recent efforts have led to significant commercial advances. However, scaling renewable organic acids to a level where they significantly impact overall carbon use provides significant technical and non-technical opportunities and challenges.

Organic acids are of interest because there is an existing market for large quantities for use in foods, beverages and chemicals.   Acetic acid, citric acid, formic acid, lactic acid, propionic acid, and fumaric acid are currently the highest volume products.   A significant portion of acetic, lactic and itaconic acids are already produced from renewable sources. It is possible that renewable materials can entirely replace petroleum derived organic acids if costs could be lowered and integrated large scale processes developed. Replacing petrochemical carbon sources is of interest to environmental conscious suppliers and consumers.

The market for renewable organics acids is also driven by the stringent environmental regulations imposed by regulatory bodies of various nations on conventional organic acid producers. Organic acids can serve as platform chemicals for the production of polymers, food, coatings, lubricating oils, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, solvents and other materials. While food and beverages remain the major markets, various organic acids that are being used in the above mentioned applications include fumaric acid, acrylic acid, lactic acid, succinic acid, acetic acid, adipic acid and others.

A number of the major players in the renewable organic development efforts are shown in Table 1. Many major chemical companies are investing in smaller start-ups to develop commercial products. This is a long term strategic investment plan aimed at protecting their business as against a return to high oil prices and increased pressure from governments and environmental motivated consumers. A number of governments, particularly in Europe and the U.S., have been promoting the research and development efforts with funding and regulatory efforts.

Organic acid markets are highly competitive and very price sensitive. It is difficult for the renewable materials prepared using extraction and/or advanced fermentation technology to compete given the current costs of petroleum derived starting materials. Major efforts to commercialize these sugars for use as a starting material for other materials that began during the era of high prices are currently reaching the commercial stage.

Renewable lactic acid is already being used to produce a polymer PLA which is the preferred plastic for 3D printing. Commercial production of 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid for use in making PFT as a replacement for PET is planned by DuPont and ADM. Production of succinic acid on a commercial scale is planned.   If oil prices return to high levels there are a number of renewable products derived from adipic acid could be produced at lower costs than non-renewable products.

Significant advances in technology are needed to make renewable organic acids and derived products cost competitive with their petroleum analogs. There continues to be significant investment in developing new organisms and enzymes that produce higher yields of targeted acids. Of particular interest are microbes that can resist poisoning by higher concentrations of acid.

The ability to produce higher concentrations of a specific product addresses one of the major limitations of the renewable production, product separation, and purification. Many of the applications require high purity materials. The cost of separation and purification can be 2/3 of the overall production costs of the acids.

As long as refined sugars are the major source of carbon it will be difficult to lower costs. There are also concerns of the sustainability of renewable sugars derived from sources currently used for food. Logistics are also a major issue including both transportation and dealing with seasonal supply variations.  Continued progress towards economical production of fermentation feeds from lignocellulose could help alleviate this conflict. However, the impurities in the cellulose derived from this approach may limit the use of some promising strains of microbes.

Processes for downstream conversion and the upgrading of the renewable acids to commercially acceptable materials are needed. These include integrating the biological synthesis and chemical processes on a commodity scale.   There are a few examples where this has been demonstrated to date. Scale up is also a major issue. Fermentation processes are generally run at smaller scales than chemical conversion process. There are also difficulties starting and stopping processes as dictated by product demand and feedstock availability.

There are also significant non-technical barriers. Public perceptions of genetic modification and biotechnology needs to be improved.  The products derived from these processes need to be accepted as natural and green. Implementation of green content guidelines and regulations would help. Creative methods for financing projects need to be developed including private/public partnerships and incentives are needed. However, the basics of product marketing still apply. Replacing long established production chains with drop-in products will be difficult to do economically.   The best incentives will be to produce products with superior properties at attractive prices.

In the long term, it is clear that renewable organic acids will play an important role in the effort to better use biomass as source of fuel and chemicals.   Getting to this point will be a very complex project. It will require collaboration between a variety of experts knowledgeable in both the biological and chemical process along with financing, scale-up, production and regulation.

Large renewable energy and biochemical consulting firms certainly have experts in the more common areas like of bio and renewable fuels, biomaterials, biomass and biomass power, biomaterials, biochemicals and biotechnologies.  But, they also have an expertise in a wide variety of specialty services like expert witness testimony, techno-economic analysis, due diligence, feasibility studies, budgeting, project management, technology assessment, insurance, due diligence, risk management, benchmarking, intellectual property, HAZOP, financial modeling, competitor analysis, and assistance with RIN and Low Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFS) matters.  These firms should also be able to assist with other things like Aspen plus, logistics, bioreactor design, municipal solid waste remediation, syngas and bio-based product development, carbon credits, climate change analysis, environmental permitting, equipment sales, experimental validations, grant writing, IP strategy, life cycle analysis (LCA), plant operations, plant sales and auctions, and risk analysis (FMEA).

Lee Enterprises Consulting is the world’s premier bioeconomy consulting group, with over 150 highly qualified experts serving in all these areas.  Take a look at our experts and the services we provide.  Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters.  For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact.  Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.