Praveen V. Vadlani, Grain Science and Industry, Kansas State University, 1980 Kimball Avenue, 202 BIVAP Building, Manhattan, KS 66506, Ka Yiu San, Department of Bioengineering, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, and George N. Bennett, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Rice University, 6100 Main Street MS#142, Houston, TX 77005.
Succinic acid is a platform chemical that can be used to make several industrial chemicals including non-toxic solvents, adhesives, paint-additives, and non-corrosive road deicers. A novel and cost-effective fermentation process is being developed to produce succinic acid using a metabolically engineered E.coli SBS550MG and renewable sugars derived from corn and grain sorghum. The constructed strain was characterized and evaluated with shake flask cultures. Fermentation experiments using 2% synthetic glucose were performed in a 2 L fermenter and a high succinic acid yield of 1.1 g/g glucose was obtained. Shake flask experiments to demonstrate the utilization of sorghum-glucose and corn steep liquor as fermentation media substitutes were also performed. A succinic acid yield of 1.1 g/g of glucose consumed was obtained, which was identical to the yield when synthetic glucose was used. Results from batch and fed-batch fermenter experiments using renewable sugars will be discussed in the presentation.