Biological production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid from glycerol
Biological production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid from glycerol Prof. Sunghoon Park Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering, UNIST, Korea 3-Hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) is an attractive platform chemical that has diverse applications in the chemical industries for paint, polymer, and consumer products. It can be synthesized chemically or biologically, but its commercial production has not been realized due to many technical challenges. We have studied a biological process for last ~15 years and succeeded in its efficient production on 100 L pilot-scale as represented by a high titer (>100 g/L), rate (>3 g/L/h), and yield (>0.95 mol/mol glycerol or >0.7 mol 3-HP carbon/mol substrate carbon). The work includes the selection of proper host microorganisms, optimization of gene expression, enzyme engineering, deletion of competing and 3-HP degradation pathways, optimization of energy and cofactor metabolisms, transport, adaptive evolution, etc. The study was collaborated with a paint company in Korea, and commercialization including process development and scale-up is now underway. This lecture summarizes and discusses our long journey with 3-HP....