3-Hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) is considered as a potential building block either for organic synthesis or high performance polymers.It is a 3-carbon carboxylic acid, structural isomer of lactic acid, which naturally exists in some thermophilic archaea and bacteria. This organic compound has been pointed out by the US Department of Energy as a promising biomass derivate, which could potentially be used for the production of high added-value chemicals like1,3-propanediol, acrylic acid, acrylamide, and bioplastics.
Being 3-HP a commercially valuable, important platform chemical, researches have been conducted about its production on commercial scale, mainly from renewable sources. The biological production of 3-HP from glycerol and glucose, both based on microbial fermentation, are among the main routes studied. More specifically, research activities have been devoted to goals such as identifying novel biochemical pathways, metabolic engineering of microbial strains for the production of 3-HP, and improvements of cultivation techniques to increase 3-HP production titers.
Despite intense research efforts, there are still important bottlenecks for cost efficient, large scale biological production of 3-Hydroxypropionic Acid.
β-Hydroxypropionic acid can be prepared by alkaline hydration of acrylic acid or by treatment of ethylene chlorohydrin with sodium cyanide, followed by hydrolysis of the resulting β-hydroxypropionitrile. It is also readily obtained by hydrolysis of the commercially important and easily accessible compound β-propiolactone.
