Innovative strategies for engineering mannitol production

Mannitol is an important polyol which is being used mainly in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The current techniques for the production of mannitol are reviewed. The present commercial production of d-mannitol takes place by hydrogenation reaction. The low d-mannitol yield, however, asks for the development of alternative procedures. The shortcomings and major drawbacks of commercial conventional methods and the potential prospects and incentives of new developing techniques such as supercritical and subcritical fluid extraction, and microorganism processing are discussed. Furthermore, important research obstacles and challenges in the development of an alternative technology for the mannitol production are pinpointed.