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Organic acids are widely distributed in nature from ages and have been used by us in our daily life be it lactic acid (in curd) or citric acid (in fruits like lemon, orange, etc.), indicating them to be the building block chemicals. Most of the organic acids can be produced microbially or as an intermediate compound. These microorganisms can be wild type or improved genetically to increase the yield. Products produced by microorganisms are of high purity, selectivity, and are cost efficient (Singh et al., 2016). Organic acids have a wide range of applications and its market is expected to grow at a rate of 60% till 2021. Though the direct demand of the particular organic acids in the market is low but can be created by chemical industry (Sauer et al., 2008). For example, maleic anhydride can be replaced by succinic acid if there is no price limitation. There are number of products that can be derived from succinic acid which includes butanediol, butyrolactone, tetrahydrofuran, bionolle, etc. Bionolle is the polymer of succinic acid and has property similar to polyethylene.

Their applications are in food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, textile, detergents, solvents, petrochemicals, dyes and adhesives, rubber, perfumes, and plastics, etc. If we talk about gluconic acid then gluconic acid and its component have a variety of applications. Gluconic acid is used to prevent milk stone formation in dairy industry and to clean aluminium cans. Various salts of gluconic acid like sodium, calcium, and iron are used as additive in cement, supplement in calcium and iron deficiency, respectively (Ramachandran et al., 2006).

Citric acid, succinic acid, lactic acid, and gluconic acid are discussed below with their structure shown in Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3 Different organic acids with their structures.