Succinic acid (SA), also known as amber acid or butanedioic acid, is a dicarboxylic acid having the molecular formula of C4H6O4. After its first purification of succinic acid from amber by Georgius Agricola in 1546, it has been produced by microbial fermentation for the use in agricultural, food and pharmaceutical industries, i.e. one of the fermentation end-products of anaerobic metabolism (Fig.1).
Fig. 1. Biochemical Pathways for SA synthesis
Currently, most of commercially available succinic acid is produced by chemical process, in which liquefied petroleum gas or petroleum oil is used as a starting material.
Succinic acid can be used as a precursor of many industrially important chemicals and considered by US-DOE as one of twelve top chemical building blocks that can be manufactured from biomass (Fig. 2.).
Fig. 2.
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