BIO-BASED CROTONIC ACID
Hidayah Ariffin, Mohd Rahimi Zakaris @ Mamat, Mohd Ali Hassan
Advantages:
1) Bacterial biomass containing PHB inclusions can be prepared by fermentation of
renewable sugars which can be obtained from treatment of agricultural biomass such as
sugarcane and oil palm frond.
2) Utilization of agricultural biomass can promote development of rural area as well as
providing new job opportunity.
3) Utilization of agricultural biomass could also reduce dependency on fossil resources
which are currently increasing in price. The hydrocarbon resources also non-renewable
and depleted due to high demand in energy, fuel and chemical industries.
4) Pyrolysis treatment does not involve the use of hazardous chemicals. Therefore, this
method is a green and environment-friendly technology.
5) Proposed method consist of less and simpler processing step compared to petrochemical
synthesis method.
6) Pyrolysis of bacterial biomass containing PHB yields approximately 63% crotonic acid,
which is 30% higher than industrial production method.
7) Estimation on crotonic acid price showed that crotonic acid produced from the proposed
method has comparable selling price with current production (USD 7.80- 11.05 and USD
6.75-13.50, respectively).
Market potential:
Crotonic acid has several specific purposes especially in the synthesis of copolymers. The
most significant derivatives of crotonic acid are crotonic acid-vinyl acetate copolymers which
have commercial names include Cevian, Gelva, Mowilith and Vinac. Crotonic acid-vinyl acetate
copolymers are commonly used in cosmetic and hair styling products as to impart sheen to the
applied features as well as to give desired hair shape. Besides, crotonic acid derivatives also have
applications in other industries such as coating, paint, textile, binders, adhesives, flocculants,
ceramics and agrochemical industries. Crotonic acid and its esters also have antimicrobial
characteristics and thus could be employed in deodorants. Above all, geometric-selectivity of the
trans-crotonic acid and its esters are believed to become crucial monomers for production of
optically-active polymers in the near future.
Crotonic acid could also be used as precursor for several important chemicals such as maleic
anhydride, acrylic acid, butanol and propylene by appropriate chemical processes such as
hydrogenization, oxidation and metathesis. These chemicals and their derivatives have been
known to have a wide range of applications and present good market opportunity. Currently, they
are industrially produced from non-renewable petroleum resource; therefore alternative
production of these chemicals from bio-based crotonic acid is potentially useful towards the
production of sustainable chemicals.