Butyric acid

Production and application of bio-based chemicals are increasingly important to the global economic development. This chapter is focused on several aspects of butyric acid production. First, butyric acid-producing bacterial strains are addressed, followed by fermentation processes such as batch, fed-batch, and continuous models with freely suspended cells as well as immobilized ones. Then, the main metabolic pathways of butyrate production and potentials for their molecular manipulation to improve product yield and tolerance of cells to product inhibition are outlined. At the end, downstream processes are discussed to separate the products efficiently.