The fermentation for succinic acid production outperforms other methods by low energy consumption and environmental benignity

with the resulting products mainly as disodium succinate (DSA). By directly esterifying DSA using CO

2

and CH

3

OH

it is expected to avoid the use of inorganic acids. By high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis and theoretical calculation

this study establishes that the reaction consists of three steps

i.e.

first forming 3-carboxypropanoate

then monomethyl succinate (MMS)

and finally dimethyl succinate (DMS). A detailed kinetic analysis is further performed

the results demonstrate that the transformation of DSA to MMS is regarded to be a second-order reaction for reactant DSA

while the transformation of MMS to DMS is a first-order reaction for reactant MMS. The activation energy for the generation of MMS from DSA is 37.15 kJmol

-1

and that for the generation of DMS from MMS is 85.80 kJmol

-1

indicating the latter one is the rate-determining step.