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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Bioenergy Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #336376
Research Project: Develop Technologies for Production of Platform Chemicals and Advanced Biofuels from Lignocellulosic Feedstocks

Location: Bioenergy Research

Title: Production of platform chemical itaconic acid from pentose sugars

Author
item Saha, Badal
item Kennedy, Gregory - Greg
item Qureshi, Nasib

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/5/2016
Publication Date: 5/1/2017
Citation: Saha, B.C., Kennedy, G.J., Qureshi, N. 2017. Production of platform chemical itaconic acid from pentose sugars [abstract]. Meeting Abstract for Society for Micrbobiology, Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals, 05/01-04/2017, San Francisco, CA. Paper #M82.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: In recent years, itaconic acid (IA), an unsaturated five carbon dicarboxylic acid, has gained importance as a fully sustainable building block chemical (platform chemical) for a wide range of applications in the manufacturing of various synthetic resins, coatings, and polymers. It is currently produced industrially from glucose by submerged fermentation using a filamentous fungus Aspergillus terreus (A. terrueus). Lignocellulosic biomass has the potential to serve as low cost feedstock for production of IA. However, only limited research data is available on the use of other sugars for IA production rather than glucose and hydrolyzates of starchy materials. There is definitely a cost advantage associated with an A. terreus strain that could use both pentose (xylose and arabinose) and hexose sugars (glucose, galactose and mannose) efficiently for IA production as typical lignocellulosic biomass hydrolyzates contain about 25-50% pentose sugars depending on the source. We have evaluated one hundred A. terreus strains for production of IA from pentose sugars (xylose and arabinose). The results of IA production from glucose, xylose, arabinose and their mixture by some selected strains will be described. The problems with developing an efficient fermentation process for IA production from lignocellulosic biomass hydrolyzates and future directions of research will be highlighted.