Biotechnology Advances 27 (2009) 3039

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Biotechnology Advances
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / b i o t e c h a d v

Research review paper

Glycerol: A promising and abundant carbon source for industrial microbiology

Gervsio Paulo da Silva a,c,1, Matthias Mack b,2, Jonas Contiero c,
a
b
c

Department of Education, Bahia State University-Uneb, BR 407, Km 127, Senhor do Bonm, BA, 48970-000, Brazil
Institute for Technical Microbiology, Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Windeckstr. 110, 68163 Mannheim, Germany
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, So Paulo State University-Unesp, Av 24A, 1515, Bela Vista, Rio Claro, SP, 13506-900, Brazil

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 23 May 2007
Received in revised form 5 May 2008
Accepted 31 July 2008
Available online 16 August 2008
Keywords:
Biodiesel
Glycerol
Carbon source
Bioconversion
Industrial microbiology
Fermentation
1,3-Propanediol

a b s t r a c t
Petroleum is the main energy source utilized in the world, but its availability is limited and the search for
new renewable energy sources is of major interest. Biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are among the
most promising sources for the substitution of fossil fuels. Biodiesel can replace petroleum diesel, as it is
produced from animal fats and vegetable oils, which generate about 10% (w/w) glycerol as the main byproduct. The excess glycerol generated may become an environmental problem, since it cannot be disposed
of in the environment. One of the possible applications is its use as carbon and energy source for microbial
growth in industrial microbiology. Glycerol bioconversion in valuable chemicals, such as 1,3-propanediol,
dihydroxyacetone, ethanol, succinate etc. is discussed in this review article.
2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contents
1.
2.
3.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Glycerol and biodiesel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Microbial growth with glycerol as carbon and energy source
3.1.
Glycerol uptake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.
Microbial metabolism of glycerol . . . . . . . . . .
4.
Glycerol bioconversion in industrial microbiology. . . . . .
4.1.
1,3-propanediol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.1.
Bacterial production of 1,3-PDO . . . . . . .
4.2.
Dihydroxyacetone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3.
Succinic acid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.4.
Propionic acid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.5.
Ethanol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.6.
Citric acid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.7.
Pigments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.8.
Polyhydroxyalcanoate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.9.
Biosurfactants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 19 3526 4198.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (G.P. da Silva), [email protected]
(M. Mack), [email protected] (J. Contiero).
1
Tel.: +55 74 3541 4013.
2
Tel.: +49 621 292 6496.
0734-9750/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biotechadv.2008.07.006

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1. Introduction
The demand for biofuels is currently on the rise worldwide and the
use of biomass is one of the most promising alternatives. Brazil was a

G.P. da Silva et al. / Biotechnology Advances 27 (2009) 3039

pioneer in the use of clean (with respect to CO2 balances) energy

sources (biofuel) when its government decided to replace gasoline
with alcohol fuel in 1973. In the mid 1980s, about 95% of the
automobiles produced in Brazil were changed to ethanol combustion.
Flex fuel vehicles, which were engineered in 2003, account for more
than 80% of the automobiles sold in Brazil. The use of biofuels will
certainly continue to grow, as the availability of petroleum is clearly
limited. Estimations point to a gradual decline in petroleum production starting in 2010 and, according to some projections, the reserves
are thought to become completely depleted by 2050 (Campbell and
Laherrre, 1998).
Another biofuel originated from biomass is biodiesel, produced
from vegetable oils and animal fats. Just as ethanol can replace
gasoline in Otto cycle motors, biodiesel can replace the diesel in diesel
engine motors. At the present time, the European Union is the
principal biodiesel producer, with 82% of biodiesel produced in the
world in 2003 (Demirbas and Balat, 2006). According to the European
Biodiesel Board (EBB, 2006), the estimated production of biodiesel in
2005 was about 3.2 million tons and the production capacity in 2006
was estimated to be about 6069 million tons. The USA is the second
major world producer and produced about 250,000 tons of biodiesel
in 2005 (EBB, 2006).
Biodiesel has been mainly used in Germany, which is currently the
largest producer and consumer of this biofuel, exceeding 2.5 billion
liters annually. A number of other countries have recently adopted the
use of biodiesel, usually as an admixture to petroleum diesel in
different proportions. In Brazil, the addition of 2% biodiesel (B2) is
obligatory since January of 2008, increasing to 5% (B5) in 2013. Brazil
will become a major producer and consumer of biodiesel for two
reasons: rst, the use of alcohol to fuel cars has a long tradition in the
Brazilian culture and, secondly, the conditions for cultivating
oleaginous plants are extremely favorable in many areas. Furthermore,
the agricultural know-how to grow these plants is available and also
large areas of cultivatable land have not yet been explored.
Simple alcohol glycerol (1,2,3-propanetriol, also glycerin or glycerine) is the principal by-product obtained during transesterication of
vegetable oils and animal fats (Solomon et al., 1995; Barbirato et al.,
1997a,b, 1998; Colin et al., 2001). Glycerol is abundant in nature, since it
is the structural component of many lipids. It is also one of the principal
compatible solutes, being widely produced in response to decreased
extracellular water activity during osmoregulation in yeasts (Wang et al.,
2001). Due to its ample occurrence in nature, many known microorganisms can naturally utilize glycerol as a sole carbon and energy source.
These microorganisms have attracted attention to the potential use in
bioconversion of abundant glycerol produced from biodiesel (Solomon
et al., 1995; Barbirato and Bories, 1997; Menzel et al., 1997a). Glycerol
may substitute traditional carbohydrates, such as sucrose, glucose and
starch, in some industrial fermentation processes.
Glycerol bioconversion adds signicant value to the productivity of
the biodiesel industry. Throughout this paper, examples of possible
biotechnological production processes based on glycerol demonstrate
that this simple chemical is a promising abundant new carbon source
for industrial microbiology.

31

2. Glycerol and biodiesel

Glycerol can be produced either by microbial fermentation or
chemical synthesis from petrochemical feedstock. It can also be
recovered from soap manufacturing. In the traditional process of the
latter, glycerol is released as a by-product during the hydrolysis of fats.
This process is currently of less importance, since soap has been
largely replaced by detergents (Wang et al., 2001).
Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oils and animal fats through
transesterication with, for instance, ethanol or methanol (alcoholysis), generally catalyzed by NaOH or KOH (Fig. 1) and glycerol
represents 10% (v/v) of the ester (Papanikolaou et al., 2002; GonzlezPajuelo et al., 2004; Mu et al., 2006). Europe mainly uses rapeseed oil
for biodiesel production. In Brazil, oils from soybean, sunower,
African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), castor oil and Jatropha curcas are
used.
In some European countries, the production of glycerol has
increased signicantly due to biodiesel uptake. As a consequence,
prices have fallen and the majority of companies that chemically
produced glycerol have shut down business (Dharmadi et al., 2006;
Deckwer, 1995). In the EU, some biodiesel companies have severe
problems getting rid of excess glycerol and disposal is quite expensive.
The collapse of glycerol prices causes major problems to these
companies (Willke and Vorlop, 2004; Dharmadi et al., 2006).
It is reported that approximately 7595% of the nal costs of
biodiesel arise from the cost of raw material (Yuste and Dorado, 2006).
Biodiesel is now widely accepted as a renewable fuel and a major goal
for the future will be to reduce the costs related to biodiesel
production. One possibility is to use inexpensive or low-cost raw
materials, such as vegetable oils used for frying (Yuste and Dorado,
2006). The reduction in taxes for biofuels is another important
approach. Considering the increasing need for renewable fuels
throughout the world and the increasing demand and production of
biodiesel, an excess of glycerol will be available in the world. Since
glycerol can be used as a carbon source in industrial microbiology, this
by-product adds value to the productive chain of the biodiesel
industry, contributing to their competitiveness.
Glycerol is present in many applications in the cosmetic, paint,
automotive, food, tobacco, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, leather
and textile industries. It also is used as a feedstock for the production
of various chemicals (Wang et al., 2001). New applications are being
evaluated in the food industry, the polyglycerol and polyurethane
industry, the eld of wood stabilizers and production of small
molecules, such as dihydroxyacetone, glyceric and hydroxypyruvic
acids and glycerol carbonate (Claude, 1999). Glycerol has also been
considered as a feedstock for new industrial fermentations in the
future (Wang et al., 2001). Thus, one of the many promising
applications for the use of glycerol is its bioconversion to high value
compounds through microbial fermentation. Glycerol is not only
cheap and abundant, but its greater degree of reduction than sugars
offers the opportunity to obtain reduced chemicals, as succinate,
ethanol, xylitol, propionate, hydrogen, etc. at higher yields than those
obtained using sugars (Dharmadi et al., 2006).

Fig. 1. Transesterication reaction of a triglyceride with ethanol (alcoholysis), utilizing NaOH as a catalyst and rendering biodiesel (mixture of fatty acid ethyl esters) and glycerol.

32

G.P. da Silva et al. / Biotechnology Advances 27 (2009) 3039

3. Microbial growth with glycerol as carbon and energy source

3.2. Microbial metabolism of glycerol

3.1. Glycerol uptake

A number of microorganisms are able to grow anaerobically on

glycerol as the sole carbon and energy source, such as Citrobacter freundii
(Homann et al., 1990; Daniel et al., 1995; Seifert et al., 2001), Klebsiella
pneumoniae (Forage and Foster, 1982; Tong et al., 1991; Menzel et al.,
1997b; Biebl et al., 1998; Nmeth et al., 2003), Clostridium pasteurianum
(Luers et al., 1997; Macis et al., 1998; Biebl, 2001), Clostridium butyricum
(Abbad-Andaloussi et al., 1995; Biebl, 1991; Biebl et al., 1992; Himmi
et al., 1999; Malaoui and Marczak, 2001; Colin et al., 2001), Enterobacter
agglomerans (Barbirato et al., 1996; Barbirato and Bories, 1997; Barbirato
et al., 1997a), Enterobacter aerogenes (Ito et al., 2005) and Lactobacillus
reuteri (Talarico et al., 1988, 1990).
In Klebsiella, Citrobacter, Clostridium and Enterobacter, glycerol is
metabolized both oxidatively and reductively (Zhu et al., 2002). In the
oxidative pathway, the NAD+-dependent enzyme glycerol dehydrogenase
(EC 1.1.1.6) catalyzes the conversion of glycerol to dihydroxyacetone and
the glycolytic enzyme dihydroxyacetone kinase (EC 2.7.1.29) phosphorylates the latter product (Daniel et al., 1995; Luers et al., 1997; Macis
et al., 1998), which is then funneled to glycolysis. The reducing pathway
is catalyzed by coenzyme B12-dependent glycerol dehydratase (EC
4.2.1.30) and related diol dehydratases (EC 4.2.1.28) (Toraya et al., 1978;
Forage and Foster, 1982; Knietsch et al., 2003), converting glycerol to 3hydroxypropionaldehyde (Toraya et al., 1980; Tong et al., 1991; Seifert
et al., 2001), and by the NADH+H+-dependent enzyme 1,3-propanediol
dehydrogenase (1,3-propanediol-oxydoreductase, EC 1.1.1.202), reducing
3-hydroxypropionaldehyde to 1,3-propanediol and regenerating NAD+
(Macis et al., 1998; Skraly et al., 1998; Ahrens et al., 1998; Veiga da Cunha
and Foster, 1992; Nmeth et al., 2003) (Fig. 2). The nal 1,3-propanediol

Like other small uncharged molecules, glycerol can cross the

cytoplasmic membrane through passive diffusion. However, cells
limited to passive uptake have a growth disadvantage at low
concentrations of substrate. Glycerol uptake is frequently cited as
the only example of transport mediated by facilitated diffusion across
the Escherichia coli inner membrane (Voegele et al., 1993). Facilitated
diffusion is achieved by an integral membrane protein, the glycerol
facilitator GlpF (Heller et al., 1980; Voegele et al., 1993; Darbon et al.,
1999). Intracellular glycerol is subsequently converted to glycerol-3phosphate by glycerol kinase (GlpK). Glycerol-3-phosphate remains
trapped in the cell until it is further metabolized because it is not a
substrate for the glycerol facilitator (Voegele et al., 1993; Darbon et al.,
1999; Braun et al., 2000).
GlpF acts as a highly selective channel, also conducting polyalcohols and urea derivatives, for which it is stereo-selective and
enantio-selective (Braun et al., 2000; Fu et al., 2000). All these
channels are strictly selective for non-ionic compounds, including
hydroxide and hydronium ions, thus preventing the dissipation of the
membrane potential (Braun et al., 2000; Fu et al., 2000). The inux of
glycerol mediated by GlpF is 100- to 1000-fold greater than expected
for a transporter and is non-saturable at a glycerol concentration of
N200 mM (Fu et al., 2000).
In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the ow of glycerol across the plasma
membrane is controlled either by passive diffusion, a channel protein
or an active uptake mechanism (Wang et al., 2001).

Fig. 2. Fermentative patterns of glycerol dissimilation dependent on 1,3-PDO formation. The key enzymes of the dha regulon and respective genes related to glycerol metabolism are
shown. Pyruvate will be reduced to different organic compounds dependent on microorganism and fermentation conditions, regenerating NAD+ (adapted from Bouvet et al., 1995;
Barbirato et al., 1997b; Menzel et al., 1997a; Biebl, 2001).

G.P. da Silva et al. / Biotechnology Advances 27 (2009) 3039

33

Fig. 3. Pathways for growth and DHA production by G. oxydans in glycerol. The membrane-bound glycerol dehydrogenase leads to an extracellular production of DHA and uses O2 as
the nal acceptor of electrons and reduced equivalents by means of ubiquinone and cytochrome o. DHA-P is catabolized by means of the pentose-phosphate pathway (adapted from
Bories et al., 1991; Claret et al., 1994).

(1,3-PDO) product is highly specic for glycerol fermentation and cannot

be obtained from any other anaerobic conversion (Homann et al., 1990;
Deckwer, 1995).
In K. pneumoniae (Forage and Lin, 1982) and C. freundii, the genes
encoding the functionally linked activities of glycerol dehydratase
(dhaB), 1,3-PDO dehydrogenase (dhaT), glycerol dehydrogenase
(dhaD), and dihydroxyacetone kinase (dhaK) are encompassed by
the dha regulon (Zhu et al., 2002) (Fig. 2). The 1,3-PDO operon of
C. butyricum is composed of three genes, a different type of glycerol
dehydratase (dhaB1), its activator protein (dhaB2) and dhaT (Raynaud
et al., 2003). In this bacterium, glycerol dehydratase is extremely
oxygen sensitive, strongly associated with the cell membrane and
vitamin-B12 independent (Saint-Amans et al., 2001; Raynaud et al.,
2003; Gonzlez-Pajuelo et al., 2004, 2005a,b, 2006).
In S. cerevisiae and a number of other yeasts, glycerol is degraded via
dihydroxyacetone or via glycerol-3-phosphate (Wang et al., 2001). In the
latter, glycerol is converted to glycerol-3-phosphate through glycerol
kinase (EC 2.7.1.30), which can be used either as a precursor for lipid
biosynthesis or conversion to dihydroxyacetone phosphate and can then
either be transformed to glyceraldeyde-3-phosphate by triose phosphate
isomerase (EC 5.3.1.1) in glycolysis or can serve as a substrate for the
synthesis of other metabolites (Wang et al., 2001). Similar pathways for
glycerol oxidation (glp regulon) are present in K. pneumoniae (Ruch et al.,
1974; Forage and Lin, 1982), Gluconobacter oxydans (Bories et al., 1991;
Claret et al., 1994) and C. acetobutylicum (Gonzlez-Pajuelo et al., 2006)
(Fig. 3). According Ruch et al. (1974), the glycerol-3-phosphate pathway
is responsible for the aerobic degradation of glycerol in K. pneumoniae
(formerly K. aerogenes), while the dihydroxyacetone pathway is
responsible for the anaerobic degradation of this substrate.
Fermentation from glycerol to ethanol or butanol by C. pasteurianum does not depend on the formation of by-products (Biebl, 2001),
since hydrogen carriers are completely regenerated in the pathway
(Biebl et al., 1998). Another example of a redox-balanced process is the
conversion of glycerol into succinic acid. Although the pathways for
ethanol and succinate are equivalent regarding the overall redox
balance, the energetic contribution of the ethanologenic pathway is
much higher, as 1 ATP is produced per each molecule of glycerol
converted into ethanol, while production of energy in the succinate
pathway is limited to the potential generation of a proton motive force
by fumarate reductase (Dharmadi et al., 2006) (Fig. 4).
4. Glycerol bioconversion in industrial microbiology
4.1. 1,3-propanediol
The diglycol 1,3-propanediol (Trimethylene glycol, propylene glycol)
is the principal product obtained through glycerol fermentation.1,3-PDO

was rst observed as a product of the fermentation of glycerol in 1881

(Werkman and Gillen, 1932). It is one of the oldest known fermentation
products, but little attention was paid to this microbial pathway for over
a century (Biebl et al., 1999). 1,3-PDO presents several interesting
applications (Tong et al., 1991; Deckwer, 1995; Colin et al., 2000; Cheng
et al., 2004; Lin et al., 2005). It can be used as a monomer for
polycondensations to produce plastics with special properties, i.e.
polyesters, polyethers and polyurethanes (Deckwer, 1995; Colin et al.,
2001; Wilke, 1999; Himmi et al., 1999; Yang et al., 2007; Du et al., 2006),
as a monomer for cyclic compounds (Knietsch et al., 2003), as a
polyglycol-type lubricant and it also may serve as a solvent (Papanikolaou et al., 2000).
1,3-PDO is an emerging commodity chemical (Cameron et al.,
1998) and renewed interest in its biotechnological production has
recently arisen (Abbad-Andaloussi et al., 1995; Zhang et al., 2006b).
The development of a new polyester, polypropylene terephthalate
(PPT or polytrimethylene terephthalate PTT) from 1,3-propanediol
requires a drastic increase in the production of this chemical
(Raynaud et al., 2003; Gonzlez-Pajuelo et al., 2005b, 2006). PPT is
a biodegradable polyester that has great potential for use in carpet
and textile manufacturing and is related to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) (Hao et al., 2006).
The chemical companies Shell and DuPont hold patents related to
new commercial PPT polymers obtained from 1,3-propanediol. Shell
has developed Corterra and DuPont has developed Sorona and
Hytrel.
PPT was developed and patented in 1941, but application was
limited since the precursor 1,3-PDO was too expensive. Thus, many
companies tried to develop new and more efcient technologies for
1,3-PDO production. In the new Shell process, 1,3-PDO is chemically
obtained from the reaction of ethylene oxide with carbon monoxide
and hydrogen. In the DuPont development, 1,3-PDO is produced
fermentatively from glucose by recombinant microorganisms (Biebl
et al., 1999; Chotani et al., 2000; Nakamura and Whited, 2003).
According to Nakamura and Whited (2003), the comparison between
glucose and glycerol considering substrate and yield has favored the
direct D-glucose route, mainly because glucose was cheaper. However,
with the abundant surplus of glycerol from biodiesel production, the
glucose route is probably more expensive now and glucose may be
used for other applications, such as alcohol fermentation. Furthermore, glucose competes directly with food and feed production, which
is not the case for glycerol.
Over 105 tons of 1,3-PDO are produced yearly, mostly through
chemical synthesis (Nmeth et al., 2003; Zhang et al., 2006a). 1,3-PDO
is chemically produced through two different routes: hydration of
acrolein and hydroformylation of ethylene oxide (Cameron et al., 1998;
Hao et al., 2006; Yang et al., 2007). Chemical synthesis requires high

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G.P. da Silva et al. / Biotechnology Advances 27 (2009) 3039

Fig. 4. Overview of some possible end products for different microorganisms during glycerol degradation.

temperature, high pressure and expensive catalysts (Lin et al., 2005)

and produces toxic intermediates (Raynaud et al., 2003; GonzlezPajuelo et al., 2004, 2005a). Consequently, chemical synthesis is
expensive and, thus, 1,3-PDO still has a low market volume (Deckwer,
1995). Because of the environmental benets and use of a renewable
feedstock, the biotechnological synthesis of 1,3-PDO appears to be an
attractive alternative to chemical synthesis (Hao et al., 2006).

4.1.1. Bacterial production of 1,3-PDO

The biotechnological production of 1,3-PDO from glycerol has been
demonstrated for several bacteria, such as Lactobacillus brevis,
L. buchnerii, Bacillus welchii, C. freundii, K. pneumoniae, C. pasteurianum,
C. butyricum and E. agglomerans (Nakas et al., 1983; Forsberg, 1987;
Homann et al.,1990; Veiga da Cunha and Foster, 1992; Biebl,1991; Biebl
et al., 1992; Biebl and Marten, 1995; Daniel et al., 1995; Macis et al.,

G.P. da Silva et al. / Biotechnology Advances 27 (2009) 3039

1998; Deckwer, 1995; Gonzlez-Pajuelo et al., 2006; Cheng et al., 2004;

Yang et al., 2007). Complete conversion of glycerol to 1,3-PDO is not
possible due to the requirement of an additional reducing equivalent
(Chotani et al., 2000) (Fig. 2).
Glycerol fermentation by enterobacteriaceae results in the accumulation of two main products, 1,3-PDO and acetate, whereas the
secondary products, lactate, formate, succinate and ethanol, are
produced in variable amounts depending on the culture conditions
(Homann et al., 1990; Barbirato et al., 1998). With C. butyricum, 1,3PDO is the main product, with butyric acid and acetic acid as byproducts in addition to CO2 and H2 (Barbirato et al., 1998). The
bacterium C. pasteurianum growing on glycerol produces a variety of
metabolic end products, such as n-butanol, 1,3-propanediol, ethanol,
acetic acid, butyric acid and lactic acid (Biebl, 2001) (Fig. 4).
According to Biebl (1991), the concentrations that inhibit glycerol
fermentation by C. butyricum are 60 g/L for 1,3-PDO, 27 g/L for acetate
and 19 g/L for butyrate, and glycerol was supported until 80 g/L.
Barbirato et al. (1998) report that, in batch fermentations using
C. butyricum containing 112 g/L industrial glycerin, the nal 1,3-PDO
concentration was 63.4 g/L, which is close to the maximal concentration tolerated by this microorganism. The conversion yield was
0.69 mol/mol and maximal 1,3-PDO productivity was 1.85 g/L/h, with
butyrate (7.5 g/L) and acetate (8.1 g/L) as the only by-products
obtained.
Papanikolaou et al. (2000) investigated the production of 1,3-PDO
by a newly isolated C. butyricum strain. The highest 1,3-PDO
concentration obtained in continuous culture was 3148 g/L, with a
conversion yield of 0.55 g 1,3-PDO/g glycerol. Using a two-stage
strategy, the maximum 1,3-PDO obtained was 4146 g/L, with a
maximum volumetric productivity of 3.4 g/L/h. Mu et al. (2006) used
K. pneumoniae to ferment crude glycerol, obtaining a concentration of
51.353 g/L of 1,3-PDO with productivity of 1.7 g/L/h. The use of crude
glycerol should simplify the process and reduce operational costs. In
fed-batch fermentation with sucrose as a co-substrate, Yang et al.
(2007) obtained up to 83.56 g 1,3-PDO/L with a yield of 0.62 mol/mol
glycerol and productivity of 1.61 g/L/h with K. oxytoca M5a1, a mutant
strain decient in lactic acid biosynthesis. In the rst report on pilotscale production of 1,3-PDO using K. pneumoniae M5a1, Cheng et al.
(2007) obtained 58.8 g 1.3-PDO/L, a yield of 0.53 mol/mol glycerol and
productivity of 0.92 g/L/h.
Metabolic engineering can be used to manipulate the pathways so
that the formation of by-products is reduced or even eliminated (Cheng
et al., 2005, 2006). The genetic manipulation of the microorganisms can
also eliminate pathways that compete with the desired product or
enhance the production of the desired metabolites. The biological
production of both glycerol and 1,3-propanediol is known, but it has
never been demonstrated that a single organism can accomplish the
entire process (Chotani et al., 2000). Thus, no natural microorganisms
have yet been found that can directly convert glucose to 1,3-PDO
(Hartlep et al., 2002). Moreover, wild-type E. coli strains do not ferment
glycerol to 1,3-PDO (Cameron et al., 1998). Some studies have developed
recombinant microorganisms for 1,3-PDO production from glucose.
Hartlep et al. (2002) present a two-stage strategy for the conversion of
glucose to 1,3-PDO. First, a recombinant E. coli strain produces glycerol
from D-glucose. Then glycerol is converted to 1,3-PDO by K. pneumoniae.
This two-stage process renders up to 6070 g/L 1,3-PDO/L. In the DuPont
and Genencor patent (Chotani et al., 2000), a process using a
recombinant E. coli strain containing the genes from S. cerevisiae for
glycerol production and the genes from K. pneumoniae for 1,3-PDO
production is described (U.S. Patent 5,599,689, 1997). This recombinant
microorganism reached a nal 1,3-PDO concentration of 135 g/L using
glucose as substrate; the productivity was 3.5 g/L/h and the efciency of
substrate conversion was 51% (Sanford et al., 2004). The need to add
large amounts of expensive vitamin B12 (Raynaud et al., 2003) is a major
limitation and has prevented the large-scale production of 1,3-PDO
using this fermentation process (Yang et al., 2007).

35

Strains of E. coli that are able to convert glycerol to 1,3-PDO have

been constructed by overexpressing genes of the dha regulon from
K. pneumoniae or C. freundii. However, the glycerol conversion is low.
The main reason for this low yield is a number of toxic by-products,
such as glycerol-3-phosphate (Zhu et al., 2002). Gonzlez-Pajuelo
et al. (2005b) developed a recombinant C. acetobutylicum DG1 strain
by introducing a plasmid (pSPD5) that contained the 1,3-propanediol
pathway from C. butyricum. This bacterium is considered the best
natural producer in terms of both yield and titer of 1,3-PDO produced.
Recombinant C. acetobutylicum DG1 (pSPD5) produced 1104 mM 1,3PDO in a fed-batch culture, with a yield of 0.65 mol/mol glycerol
consumed and productivity of 1.70 g/L/h. The authors conclude that
C. acetobutylicum DG1 (pSPD5) can be used for the continuous
industrial production of 1,3-PDO with high yields, titers and
productivity from raw glycerol from biodiesel (Gonzlez-Pajuelo
et al., 2005b, 2006). Zhang et al. (2006a) constructed a recombinant
E. coli JM109 strain (pHsh-dhaB-yqhD) containing the genes yqhD
(coding for 1,3-propanediol oxidoreductase from wild-type E. coli) and
dhaB from C. freundii in the temperature control expression plasmid
vector pHsh. This recombinant strain produced up to 41.1 g/L of 1,3PDO in an optimized culture medium containing 61.8 g glycerol/L.
Cameron et al. (1998) describe several metabolic engineering
approaches for 1,2 and 1,3-propanediol production.
2,3-Butanediol is another glycol that can be produced from glycerol.
According to Syu (2001), 2,3-butanediol is a compound that can be added
as a avoring agent in food products when converted to diacetyl through
oxidation. 2,3-Butanediol can also be converted to 1,3-butadiene, which
is used in the production of synthetic rubber. Many other derivatives of
1,3-butadiene are of commercial value, such as antifreeze agents,
solvents and plastics, liquid fuel additives and polyurethanes for drugs,
cosmetic products and lotions. The mechanisms that lead to the
production of 1,3-PDO and 2,3-butanediol from glycerol by K. pneumoniae were discussed by Biebl et al. (1998) and the highest 2,3-butanediol
production occurs at low pH and an excess of glycerol.
4.2. Dihydroxyacetone
Dihydroxyacetone is frequently used in the cosmetic industry and
serves as a versatile building block for the organic synthesis of a
variety of ne chemicals (Hekmat et al., 2003; Bauer et al., 2005). Due
to rigorous safety requirements, the chemical production of DHA is
rather expensive. Thus, DHA synthesis is performed more economically using a microbial process (Hekmat et al., 2003). It is produced via
the oxidation of glycerol using the acetic acid bacterium G. oxydans
(Flickinger and Perlman, 1977; Nabe et al., 1979; Wethmar and
Deckwer, 1999; Bauer et al., 2005) in a process that requires good
oxygenation and a medium containing yeast extract (Flickinger and
Perlman, 1977). Wethmar and Deckwer (1999) developed a semisynthetic medium that allows increased specic DHA production,
signicantly reducing the yeast extract in the medium.
There are only two pathways for glycerol catabolism in G. oxydans
(Bories et al., 1991; Claret et al., 1994). Microbial growth is ensured by a
cytoplasmic pathway, in which glycerol is phosphorylated to glycerol3-phosphate and then dehydrogenated to DHA-phosphate (DHA-P),
which is ATP- and NAD-dependent. DHA-P is catabolized in the
pentose-phosphate pathway. DHA production occurs via a membrane-bound glycerol dehydrogenase, which appears to be the only
process responsible for DHA synthesis and employs oxygen as the nal
acceptor of reduced equivalents, without NADH involvement (Fig. 3).
One of the main problems of microbial DHA synthesis is the fact that
both the substrate and product have an inhibitory effect on bacterial
growth (Bories et al., 1991; Claret et al., 1994; Hekmat et al., 2003; Bauer
et al., 2005). Hekmat et al. (2003) propose a repeated-fed-batch mode,
allowing a fully automated quasi-continuous operation that can be
maintained over a period of several months with no decrease in
productivity, thereby reducing processing costs. The productivity of the

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G.P. da Silva et al. / Biotechnology Advances 27 (2009) 3039

process was increased by 75%, from 1.6 kg/m3/h to about 2.8 kg/m3/h,
but the authors observed that maximum productivity had not yet been
achieved. Using this new process, Bauer et al. (2005) demonstrated that
the culture was able to grow in up to a DHA concentration of 80 kg/m3
without any inuence of product inhibition. G. oxydans lost its
regeneration capability at DHA concentrations above 160 kg/m3, but
product formation was observed up to a maximum DHA concentration
of 220 kg/m3 because intact membrane-bound glycerol dehydrogenase
was still active both in the irreversibly growth-inhibited cells as well as
in the cell debris.
Gtgens et al. (2007) assessed the effect of the overexpression of
glycerol dehydrogenase (ORFs sldAB) on glycerol oxidation, demonstrating that growth on glycerol was signicantly improved in the
overexpression strains (OD 2.82.9) compared to the control strains
(OD 1.82.0). Both the DHA formation rate and the nal DHA
concentration were affected such that up to about 30 g/L of DHA
was accumulated by the overexpression strains, compared to 1825 g/
L in control strains when 50 g/L glycerol was supplied. The higher
concentration of enzyme possibly reduced the velocity of total
glycerol dehydrogenase inactivation and slowed down the inactivation of glycerol oxidation and cell viability. This also explains the
higher DHA production rate in the strains overexpressing the sldAB
gene.
4.3. Succinic acid
Succinate has a specialty chemical market in industries producing
food and pharmaceutical products, surfactants and detergents, green
solvents, biodegradable plastics and ingredients to stimulate animal
and plant growth. Due to its structure as a linear saturated
dicarboxylic acid, succinate can be used as an intermediate chemical
and be converted to 1,4-butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, -butyrolactone,
adipic acid, n-methylpyrrolidone and linear aliphatic esters (Zeikus
et al., 1999). An increasing demand for succinic acid is expected as its
use is extended to the synthesis of biodegradable polymers such as
polybutyrate succinate (PBS) and polyamides (Song and Lee, 2006).
Ranucci et al. (2000) describe the synthesis of a new biodegradable
polymer, poly(1,3-propylene succinate), obtained through the thermal
polycondensation of succinic acid with 1,3-PDO.
Succinate is currently produced petrochemically from butane
through maleic anhydride; only natural succinic acid sold in the
food market is produced by fermentation (Zeikus et al., 1999).
Succinate is normally produced under anaerobic conditions through
several different metabolic pathways, such as PEP and pyruvate
carboxylation. Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens is one of the
most efcient succinate producers and uses the PEP carboxylation
pathway (Fig. 4), catalyzed by PEP carboxykinase (or PEP carboxylase),
malate dehydrogenase, fumarase and fumarate dehydrogenase (Lee
et al., 2004).
Lee et al. (2001) showed that A. succiniciproducens can efciently
convert glycerol to succinate. A maximum of 19 g/L of succinic acid
was obtained by fermentation of A. succiniciproducens when glycerol
was used as the sole carbon source in a medium supplemented with
yeast extract and 29.6 g/L when glycerol was fed with glucose.
According with the authors, succinic acid production from glycerol
presents several advantages over glucose, such as high succinic acid
yield with reduced acetic acid formation. This is advantageous
because acetic acid imposes difculties with respect to downstream
processes for the recovery of succinic acid. Considering the costs of
separation and purication of succinate from fermentation broth
containing mixed acids, the formation of by-products is a problem to
be solved through metabolic engineering and fermentation process
optimization (Song and Lee, 2006).
Fumaric acid is a chemical product that has several industrial
applications, such as an acidulant in the food industry, the manufacturing of sizing resins for the paper industry and is a promising candidate in

the obtainment of polymers (Zhou et al., 2002). While no work has been
performed to evaluate the production of fumaric acid from glycerol,
there is a possibility of it also being obtained from glycerol fermentation,
as it is a direct precursor of succinic acid (Fig. 4).
4.4. Propionic acid
Propionic acid is another substance synthesized in a similar pathway
to that of succinic acid and is derived directly from a metabolic pathway
balanced with regard to redox-equivalents (Barbirato et al., 1997a)
(Fig. 4). Propionate is used as an antifungal agent in food and feed and as
a basic chemical to produce cellulose-based plastics, herbicides, solvents
and perfumes (Barbirato et al., 1997a), arthritis drugs, avors and
thermoplastics (Himmi et al., 2000). The numerous industrial applications of propionic acid account for an increasing interest in the
development of a biotechnological production process based on the
renewable resource glycerol (Barbirato et al., 1997a, Himmi et al., 2000).
Barbirato et al. (1997a) assessed the production of propionate from
glycerol by three bacterial strains: Propionibacterium acidipropionici,
Propionibacterium acnes and Clostridium propionicum. Considering
fermentation time and conversion yield, the best strain for glycerol
conversion to propionate was P. acidipropionici. The fermentation
prole of this bacterium revealed ve end products, consisting of
propionic acid as the major product (0.84 mol/mol and productivity of
0.18 g/L/h), with the following minimal by-products: succinate,
acetate, formate and n-propanol. Productivity of up to 0.36 g/L/h
was obtained and the maximal propionic acid concentration was 42 g/
L using 80 g/L glycerol in the medium. Acetic acid formation was low
when compared to the amount observed during glucose fermentation
by P. acidipropionici. As the efciency of propionic acid extraction
through distillation is strongly limited by acetic acid (as can be
observed for succinic acid), the extremely low acetic acid concentration obtained by using glycerol as substrate should greatly increase
the yield of propionic acid recovered through distillation and simplify
the distillation procedure (Barbirato et al., 1997a). The authors
conclude that glycerol is a promising substrate for propionic acid
production both in terms of conversion yield and productivity, which
is similar or superior to that of lactic acid (0.35 g/L/h) or glucose
(0.28 g/L/h). Better efciency for propionic acid production from
glycerol could be expected because of its higher reduction level over
conventional substrates.
4.5. Ethanol
Ethanol is primarily produced from sugarcane in Brazil, from corn
starch in the USA and from sugar beets in the EU. In a study to obtain
solvents from algal biomass, Nakas et al. (1983) describe a soil
bacterium tentatively classied as a member of the genus Bacillus,
which produces ethanol (nal concentration 7.09.6 g/L) from a
glycerol-enriched algal mixture. Jarvis et al. (1997) demonstrated that
formate and ethanol are the major products of glycerol fermentation
by Klebsiella planticola isolated from the rumen. These authors state
the observation that formate and ethanol are the major glycerol
fermentation products is an interesting one with respect to microbiological ecology of the red deer rumen. With the expected surplus
of glycerol from biodiesel, this observation will become interesting
also to industrial microbiology, demonstrating the importance of basic
studies in microbial ecology and diversity to the development of
applied microbiology.
Dharmadi et al. (2006) report that E. coli can ferment glycerol in a
pH-dependent manner, being linked to the availability of CO2, which
is produced under acidic conditions by the oxidation of formate by
the enzyme formate hydrogen lyase. Glycerol (10 g/L) was almost
completely consumed within 84 h, with ethanol (86%) and succinic
acid (7%) accounting for 93% (molar basis) of the products. Only minor
amounts of acetate were produced. According the authors, E. coli is

G.P. da Silva et al. / Biotechnology Advances 27 (2009) 3039

already a good biocatalyst for the conversion of glycerol into ethanol

and hydrogen. Ito et al. (2005) state that E. aerogenes can be used for
the high-yield production of ethanol from biodiesel wastes containing glycerol. In a synthetic medium containing biodiesel wastes with
glycerol at 80 mM, glycerol was consumed in 24 h, yielding H2 at
0.89 mol/mol glycerol and ethanol at 1.0 mol/mol glycerol. The
ethanol yield from glycerol fermentation described is low and future
development is needed in order for this fermentation to be
applicable.
4.6. Citric acid
Citric acid is produced in large quantities by fermentation, with a
global production rate estimated at about 1.4 million tons in 2004.
Citric acid is widely used to impart a pleasant, tart/fruity avor to
foods and beverages and is also used as an additive in detergents,
pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and toiletries (Soccol et al., 2006). In
general, citric acid is produced by submerged microbial fermentation
on molasses using Aspergillus niger. In recent years, considerable
interest has arisen in nding less expensive carbon sources for citric
acid production (Soccol et al., 2006). Papanikolaou et al. (2002) found
that the citric acid producer Yarrowia lipolytica grows on glycerol,
concluding that raw glycerol may be a suitable substrate for citric acid
production. This yeast produced up to 35 g/L of citric acid when a high
initial concentration of glycerol was used in the culture medium.
Growth and citric acid production parameters on glycerol were similar
to those obtained using glucose. Imandi et al. (2007) describe a
statistically optimized medium for Y. lipolytica NCIM 3589. The
authors predict a nal citric acid concentration of 77.4 g/L in the
fermentation broth when using raw glycerol as a substrate.
4.7. Pigments
Some studies have been made using glycerol as carbon source for
pigment production, such prodigiosin and astaxantin. Prodigiosin is a
deep red pigment formed by the Gram-negative bacterium Serratia
marcescens when cultivated on rich solid media. This pigment is an
immunosupressor and has been reported to induce apoptosis of
several cancer cell lines, such as hematopoietic cancer cells, colon
cancer cells, B-lymphatic cancer cells and chronic lymphocytic
leukemia cells, but not in nonmalignant cells, which indicates that
prodigiosin may have potential as new antineoplastic candidate
(Montaner et al., 2000; Camps et al., 2003). Tao et al. (2005)
demonstrated that glycerol allowed the highest prodigiosin production rate when used as main carbon source in the medium among
several others carbon sources. In a two-step feeding strategy using
glucose for growth and then glycerol for prodigiosin synthesis, a
S. marcescens mutant produced about 583 mg prodigiosin/L in 30 h,
with glycerol as the sole carbon source in a 5-l bioreactor.
Astaxanthin (3,3-dihydroxy-,-carotene-4,4-dione) is a red or
orange pigment found in marine environments. It is used to feed
animals such as salmon, trout (freshwater) and crustaceans in order to
give them a color that appeals to consumers. Synthetic astaxanthin is
currently incorporated at a rate of approximately 40150 mg/kg of
feed. However, a natural source of astaxanthin is preferred for an
apparent safe utilization as a food additive (Kusdiyantini et al., 1998).
The yeast Phafa rhodozyma produces astaxanthin and it is considered
a potential source of this pigment. Kusdiyantini et al. (1998)
demonstrated that glycerol is a potential substrate for astaxanthin
production in P. rhodozyma, obtaining a maximum total volumetric
astaxanthin concentration of 33.7 mg/L.
4.8. Polyhydroxyalcanoate
Polyhydroxyalcanoate (PHA) represents a complex class of naturally occurring bacterial polyesters that are synthesized intracellularly

37

as carbon and energy reserve materials (Ashby et al., 2004) by

microorganisms belonging to the Bacteria and Archaea domains of life
(Solaiman et al., 2006). These reserve materials are synthesized when
the microorganisms are grown under nutrient-limited conditions
(Ashby et al., 2005). Since PHAs are biodegradable and biocompatible,
they may replace petroleum-derived polymers, which are widely used
in medicine, drug delivery, agriculture/horticulture, the ber industry
and the consumer care branch (Solaiman et al., 2006).
Due to the cost of the fermentative substrate, research efforts
abound to exploit inexpensive fermentable raw material as fermentative substrates for PHA production (Solaiman et al., 2006). Bormann
and Roth (1999) describe the production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)
by Methylobacterium rhodesianum and Ralstonia eutropha in a medium
containing glycerol and casein peptone or casamino acids, but the
conversion was low. Ashby et al. (2004) used Pseudomonas sp. for PHA
production from a co-product stream of biodiesel containing glycerol,
free fatty acids and fatty acid methyl ester and showed that glycerol
was the preferred substrate by P. oleovorans. This is interesting in that
glycerol is the most energetically favorable substrate for the formation
of acetyl-CoA, the precursor for PHB synthesis. The authors conclude
that co-product from biodiesel can be used for PHA production without
the need for separating and recovering glycerol and other components.
Ashby et al. (2005) showed that up to 5% glycerol (v/v) could be used
for the production of both PHB by P. oleovorans and medium-chainlength PHA by P. corrugata under identical growth conditions, allowing
mixed culture fermentations to be used in the formation of PHA
polymer blends with varying blend ratios.
Koller et al. (2005) obtained 16.2 g/L of PHA in the glycerol liquid
phase from the biodiesel industry, which contained about 70% glycerol
(w/w). PHB from glycerol has low molecular weight, because the
substrate causes termination of chain propagation through covalent
esterication of glycerol to PHB in a chain terminating position, thus
rendering PHAs of low molecular weight (Ashby et al., 2005; Koller
et al., 2005). This nding is certain to have an important implication
when using glycerol to produce PHA (Solaiman et al., 2006).
4.9. Biosurfactants
Research in the eld of biosurfactants has expanded quite a lot in
recent years, due to their potential use in areas such as the food industry,
agriculture, pharmaceutical industry, crude oil recovery and bioremediation of contaminated sites (Bannat et al., 2000). The development of
studies on biosurfactants has a considerable importance, mainly in view
of the present concern for protecting the environment. Biosurfactants
have many advantages over chemically manufactured surfactants. They
are less toxic, biodegradable and have unique surface-active properties
(Bognolo, 1999). Nitschke et al. (2005) found that Pseudomonas
aeruginosa can synthesize rhamnolipids from glycerol as the sole carbon
source, but the yield was low when compared to using hydrophobic
substrates. Zhang et al. (2005) produced 15.4 g/L rhamnolipids using P.
aeruginosa growing on a basal mineral medium containing glycerol as
the sole carbon source. Rahman et al. (2002) observed that P. aeruginosa
DS10-129 produced 1.77 g/L rhamnolipids on glycerol. These results
show that glycerol can be used for the production of biosurfactants.
5. Conclusions
In general, the use of renewable waste substrates is an environmental-friendly choice that also contributes to the reduction of waste
treatment costs and increases the economic value of by-products. Some
chemical commodities currently produced from petroleum can, in
principle, be produced biotechnologically from glycerol using microorganisms. This bioconversion would directly benet the environment
by obtaining biodegradable polymers, promoting the use of biodiesel
and reducing petroleum dependency. The development of processes for
converting inexpensive glycerol into higher value products is expected

38

G.P. da Silva et al. / Biotechnology Advances 27 (2009) 3039

to make biodiesel production more economical and will thus help

establish more bioreneries (Dharmadi et al., 2006). This will also have
an important social impact, as small farmers cultivate oleaginous plants
which in turn are the basis for biodiesel production. Future research will
focus on the isolation and characterization of microorganisms that can
use glycerol as a carbon source and generate valuable molecules with
unusual properties, thereby broadening the potential applications of this
cheap by-product of transesterication.
Glycerol is a versatile carbon and energy source with many
possible applications in industrial fermentation. Most research has
focused on the employment of glycerol in solvent production such as
dihydroxyacetone and 1,3-propanediol. However, glycerol can also be
used as a carbon source to obtain other valuable microbial products,
such as recombinant proteins and enzymes, medicinal drugs,
antibiotics and ne chemicals.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Banco do Nordeste do Brasil, ETENE/
FUNDECI program (convnio BNB/Uneb 2007/059), Bahia State
University (Uneb), Fundao de Amparo Pesquisa do Estado da
Bahia (Fapesb) and So Paulo State University (Unesp).
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