Metabolic Engineering and Process Intensification for Muconic Acid Production Using .

The efficient production of biobased organic acids is crucial to move to a more sustainable and eco-friendly economy, where muconic acid is gaining interest as a versatile platform chemical to produce industrial building blocks, including adipic acid and terephthalic acid. In this study, a platform strain able to convert glucose and xylose into ,-muconic acid was further engineered to eliminate C2 dependency, improve muconic acid tolerance, enhance production and growth performance, and substantially reduce the side production of the intermediate protocatechuic acid. This was achieved by reintroducing the gene and overexpression of genes. The improved strain was integrated in low-pH fed-batch fermentations at bioreactor scale with integrated product recovery. By adding a biocompatible organic phase consisting of CYTOP 503 and canola oil to the process, a continuous extraction of muconic acid was achieved, resulting in significant alleviation of product inhibition. Through this, the muconic acid titer and peak productivity were improved by 300% and 185%, respectively, reaching 9.3 g/L and 0.100 g/L/h in the product recovery process as compared to 3.1 g/L and 0.054 g/L/h in the control process without ISPR.