Síntese do processo de produção do ácido 3-hidroxipropiônico

Abstract

The production of chemical building blocks through bioprocesses stands out as a possibly sustainable alternative compared to the synthesis of petroleum-derived ones. The 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) is presented as a potential building block, a precursor of a range of compounds and specialties (e.g., acrylic acid, methyl acrylate, 1,3-propanediol, malonic acid, hydroxyamides, and acrylamide). Thus, 3-HP is naturally produced as an intermediary in metabolic pathways or as a secondary metabolite of several microorganisms, which highlights the opportunity to produce it using bioprocesses. However, it is not possible to achieve commercially interesting results using wild-type strain, which is possible through recombinant strains. Although the proposal is promising, the knowledge about its economic viability is limited, i.e., the minimum performance required for the process to make it economically viable. In this sense, the techno-economic analysis is a tool that gives the direction for the chemical routes to be explored. Thus, the aim of this work has consisted of the preliminary cost analysis of processes previously reported in the literature, followed by the synthesis and simulation of the most promising economically scenario. For this purpose, references for 3-HP production focusing on carbon sources that would allow the integration to biorefineries were raised. In addition, the fermentation process of each reference was detailed in terms of raw materials and their costs obtained by contacting suppliers and the national database Comex Stat. Through the preliminary cost analysis, it was verified that vitamin B12 accounts for up to 97,5% in processes that use the coenzyme, while the isopropyl-β-D-galactoside (IPTG) is responsible for up to 77% in references that employ the inducer. Thus, the case chosen for the synthesis and simulation does not need vitamin B12 and IPTG, and its gross cost is 15.72 BRL/kg. For the separation step, it was proposed reactive extraction using tri-n-octylamine (20% v/v) and 1-decanol (80% v/v) as solvent followed by back-extraction using temperature-swing, which allowed recovery up to 90% of 3-HP.