1,4-Butanediol (1,4-BDO) is a valuable industrial chemical that is primarily produced via several energy-intensive petrochemical processes based on fossil-based raw materials, leading to issues related to: non-renewability, environmental contamination, and high production costs. 1,4-BDO is used in many chemical reactions to develop a variety of useful, valuable products, such as: polyurethane, Spandex intermediates, and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), a water-soluble polymer with numerous personal care and pharmaceutical uses. In recent years, to satisfy the growing need for 1,4-BDO, there has been a major shift in focus to sustainable bioproduction via microorganisms using: recombinant strains, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, enzyme engineering, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence-guided algorithms. This article discusses the current status of the development of: various chemical and biological production techniques for 1,4-BDO, advances in biological pathways for 1,4-BDO biosynthesis, prospects for future production strategies, and the difficulties associated with environmentally friendly and bio-based commercial production strategies.
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), South Korea [Grant Number: 2021R1A2C1007519] and by the R&D Program of MOTIE/KEIT, South Korea [Grant Numbers: 20018132 and 20014350]. All the structures have been adopted from PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, and modified for the creation of the images. In addition, we are grateful to all our laboratory colleagues and research personnel for their helpful advice and assistance.
