New Trends in Microbial Production of 3-hydroxypropionic Acid

Production of bio-based chemicals nowadays is more crucial than ever. The fact that 3-Hydroxypropionic acid can serve as a building block chemical for the production of other high added value chemicals, has made it as one of the most valuable chemicals according to US DOE. Recently, researchers have turned their interest to the construction of a microbial cell factory that will be capable of producing 3-hydroxypropionic acid from renewable raw materials. Most of the work is dedicated to the utilization of glycerol as raw material by employing either Escherichia coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae strains. Several genes were tested and evaluated and different cultivation techniques were applied. During the last few years, promising levels of 3- hydroxypropionic acid were obtained, however more efforts have to be dedicated in this direction of the commercialization of the process that seems to be closer than even before.