BASF pursues biobased fumaric acid

BASF is working with three German universities to ferment sugar and carbon dioxide into fumaric acid with the bacterium Basfia succiniciproducens. Fumaric acid, used as a food acidulant and in industrial applications, is now produced commercially from the petrochemical maleic anhydride. In 2008, BASF and other researchers isolated the bacterium, found to be an efficient producer of succinic acid, from the rumen of a Holstein cow. The new team now plans to genetically modify it to produce fumaric acid.