(165c) Organic Acid In China: Progress and Prospect

A modern biotechnology industry has been established successfully over the last 30 years in China. Presently, China is a major producer of many products through biotechnology processes. For example, China has been the world’s top producer of some organic acid such as glutamic acid, L-lysine and citric acid. This presentation would introduce the development status and trends of organic acid fermentation industry in China.

In this presentation, the organic acid fermentation industry in China firstly was introduced. The content includes the supply and demand status, market size and growth potential, major producing company of some organic acid such as lactic acid, fumaric acid, citric acid, L-lysine, glutamic acid, itaconic acid, etc. Secondly, the technology advantages and disadvantages of organic acid industry have been presented, including up-steam fermentation and down-stream separation technology. Thirdly, the developing technology trend has been introduced in detail. The research and manufacture of bio-based fumaric acid and malic acid has been selected as an example to demonstrate that China would pay attention to the food application of the bio-based organic acid. In order to broaden the range of raw materials so that non-food biomass can be utilized efficiently, some researches have been devoted to the pretreatment of ligno-cellulose and the mutant strain breeding, which would accelerate the efficient conversion of low-quality biomass. Based on the organic acid, the new extended product chain have been researched and established. For example, non-toxic citrate esters plasticizer from citric acid, acrylic acid from catalytic dehydration of fermented lactic acid, 1,5-Pentanediamine from L-lysine through decarboxylation process, poly(butylene succinate) from bio-based succinic acid, novel polylactic acid manufacture and processing technology, and so on. Lastly, a concluding remark about organic acid in China has been presented.