Efficient biosynthesis of succinate from a renewable biomass resource by engineered Escherichia coli is reported in this paper. Fermentation of sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate by engineered E. con BA204, a pflB, ldhA, and ppc deletion strain overexpressing the ATP-forming phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase from Bacillus subtilis 168, produced a final succinate concentration of 15.85 g L-1 with a high yield of 0.89 g L-1 total sugar under anaerobic conditions. During dual-phase fermentations, initial aerobic growth facilitated subsequent anaerobic succinate production, with a final succinate concentration of 18.88 g L-1 and a yield of 0.96 g g(-1) total sugar after 24 h of anaerobic fermentation. The high succinate yield from sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate demonstrated a great potential application of renewable biomass as a feedstock for the economical production of succinate using metabolically engineered E. coli. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.