Sustainability Metrics for Succinic Acid Production: A Comparison between Biomass-based and Petrochemical Routes

Biomass-derived succinic acid (Bio-SA) has been described as a strategic platform chem., due to its potential as the C4 building block in industrial org. chem. Sustainability of SA prodn. via fermentative synthesis was studied through two different processes (Myriant and Reverdia cases) and compared with the corresponding petrochem. route. Four groups of parameters, namely material efficiency, economics, energy efficiency and land use were considered. Green metrics results show that energy efficiency for Bio-SA prodn. is slightly higher while material efficiency is rather lower when compared with the petrochem. counterpart. Remarkably, Bio-SA calcd. costs (»1040euro/MT in the worse case) are quite lower than the actual prices for Petr.SA and close to the price of maleic anhydride used as raw material. Thus, bio-based SA prodn. appears to be competitive with petrochem. route for MAN. Competitiveness of Bio-SA can be boosted by optimization of fermentative process, as well as by the Bio-SA upgrading to high added value chems.