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Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula C₆H₈O₇. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in the metabolism of all aerobic organisms.

Citric acid is used in insecticides and disinfectants to help destroy bacteria and viruses. It is also used to preserve and marinate meats, and flavor foods and beverages.

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How Is Citric Acid Industrially Produced? 

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How Is Citric Acid Industrially Produced? 

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Citric acid is a major industrial chemical, produced at >200 million t/year worldwide. Its main source is not from fruit, but from the fermentation of crude sugars e.g molasses and corn starch.Citric acid is produced mainly by submerged fermentation using Aspergillus Niger (mold) or Canada sq. from different sources of carbohydrates, such as molasses and starch based media.

Industrial production of citric acid requires aerobic respiration, submerged growth of A. niger in a sugar solution (glucose supply), which is usually derived from inexpensive sources like corn starch or molasses. After fermentation, A Niger is physically removed, usually by filtration. Citric acid is isolated by precipitation of the fermentation mix with calcium hydroxide (lime) to generate calcium citrate salt. Subsequent treatment with sulphuric acid yields the citric acid product.

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Citric acid is found in citrus fruits like lemon and limes. A manufactured form of citric acid is commonly used as an additive in food, cleaning agents, and nutritional supplements. Because of its acidic, sour-tasting nature, citric acid is predominantly used as a flavouring and preserving agent, especially in soft drinks and candies. Citric acid is a useful disinfectant against a variety of bacteria and viruses.

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The history of citric acid started in 1784 with W. Scheele who first isolated it from the lemon juice as calcium citrate, which treated with sulphuric acid gave citric acid in the liquid phase.

In 1838, Libieg considered that citric acid is actually three carboxylic acid and in 1880 Grimoux and Adam synthesized citric acid from glycerol-derived 1,3 dichloroacetone for the first time chemically.

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Citric acid chelates calcium and is used by blood banks, since the citrate-calcium chelate helps to prevent blood coagulation. Citrate was found to be preferable to heparin as an anticoagulant during hemodialysis with cellulose triacetate dialyzers. Presumably by its chelation of calcium ions, citrate treatment reduced the release of indicators of degranulation of polymorphonuclear cells. Because citric acid is a very efficient binder of calcium, it has been used in chelation therapy for heavy-metal contamination [1,2,9,15,16,79].