Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2023, Vol. 52: 99-126.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(23)64512-7

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Recent advances in fermentative production of C4 diols and their chemo-catalytic upgrading to high-value chemicals

Abhishek R. Varmaa, Bhushan S. Shriramea, Sunil K. Maitya,*(), Deepti Agrawalb, Naglis Malysc, Leonardo Rios-Solisd, Gopalakrishnan Kumare, Vinod Kumarf,g,h,*()   

  1. aDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Sangareddy 502284, Telangana, India
    bBiochemistry and Biotechnology Area, Material Resource Efficiency Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun 248005, Uttarakhand, India
    cDepartment of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemical Technology, Kaunas University of Technology, Radvilėnų Street 19, LT-50254 Kaunas, Lithuania
    dDepartment of Biochemical Engineering, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
    eSchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
    fSchool of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, United Kingdom
    gDepartment of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247667, India
    hC-Source Renewables Limited, Summit House, 4-5 Mitchell Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7BD, United Kingdom
  • Received:2023-07-17 Accepted:2023-08-28 Online:2023-09-18 Published:2023-09-25
  • Contact: *E-mail: sunil_maity@che.iith.ac.in (S. K. Maity),Vinod.Kumar@cranfield.ac.uk (V. Kumar).
  • About author:Dr. Sunil K. Maity is currently working as a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India. He also served about two and half years as an Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India, from 2007 to 2010. Prof. Maity received his B.Tech. degree in Chemical Engineering from University College of Science and Technology, University of Calcutta, India in 1999, followed by M.Tech. degree in 2002 and Ph.D. in 2007 from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. His research interests mainly focus on biorefinery for biofuels and renewable chemicals, heterogeneous catalysis and chemical reaction engineering, and techno-economic analysis using Aspen Plus and pinch technology. He published three edited books, ten book chapters, forty peer-reviewed journal articles, and has organized several national and international conferences.
    Dr. Vinod Kumar is a Senior Lecturer in Microbial Technology and Biorefining at Cranfield University (CU). He is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Dr. Kumar earned his M.Sc. (Chemistry) and PhD (Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology) degree from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. He graduated in B.Sc. (Hons) Chemistry from Hindu College, University of Delhi, India. The research activities of Dr. Kumar are at nexus of Metabolic/Pathway Engineering, Bioprocessing and Waste Valorization. His work leads to development of low carbon biomanufacturing technologies for overproduction of platform/commodity chemicals and fuels from carbonaceous agro-industrial waste streams rich in renewable carbon, with a circular economy approach. He has 130+ publications in peer reviewed high-quality journals/publishers attracting a cumulative citation of 4004 with an h-index ~35 till date. Dr. Kumar is Associate Editor for 3Biotech, and Microbial Cell Factories and Editor for Food and Bioproducts Bioprocessing and sits on Editorial Board of Chemical Engineering Journal. He also holds Visiting Faculty position for two premier institutes in India: Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and Roorkee.

Abstract:

The current era is witnessing the transition from a fossil-dominated economy towards sustainable and low-carbon green manufacturing technologies at economical prices with reduced energy usage. The biological production of chemical building blocks from biomass using cell factories is a potential alternative to fossil-based synthesis. However, microbes have their own limitations in generating the whole spectrum of petrochemical products. Therefore, there is a growing interest in an integrated/hybrid approach where products containing active functional groups obtained by biological upgrading of biomass are converted via chemo-catalytic routes. The present review focuses on the biological production of three important structural isomers of C4 diols, 2,3-, 1,3-, and 1,4-butanediol, which are currently manufactured by petrochemical route to meet the soaring global market demand. The review starts with justifications for the integrated approach and summarizes the current status of the biological production of these diols, including the substrates, microorganisms, fermentation technology and metabolic/pathway engineering. This is followed by a comprehensive review of recent advances in catalytic upgrading of C4 diols to generate a range of products. The roles of various active sites in the catalyst on catalytic activity, product selectivity, and catalyst stability are discussed. The review also covers examples of integrated approaches, addresses challenges associated with developing end-to-end processes for bio-based production of C4 diols, and underlines existing limitations for their upgrading via direct catalytic conversion. Finally, the concluding remarks and prospects emphasise the need for an integrated biocatalytic and chemo-catalytic approach to broaden the spectrum of products from biomass.

Key words: Butanediols, Fermentation, Metabolic engineering, Heterogeneous catalysis, 1,3-Butadiene, 3-Buten-1-ol, 3-Buten-2-ol, Methyl ethyl ketone