Continuous Membrane-Based Screening System for Biocatalysis

The use of membrane reactors for enzymatic and co-factor regenerating reactions offers versatile advantages such as higher conversion rates and space-time-yields and is therefore often applied in industry. However, currently available screening and kinetics characterization systems are based on batch and fed-batch operated reactors and were developed for whole cell biotransformations rather than for enzymatic catalysis. Therefore, the data obtained from such systems has only limited transferability for continuous membrane reactors. The aim of this study is to evaluate and to improve a novel screening and characterization system based on the membrane reactor concept using the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose as a model reaction. Important aspects for the applicability of the developed system such as long-term stability and reproducibility of continuous experiments were very high. The concept used for flow control and fouling suppression allowed control of the residence time with a high degree of precision (±1% accuracy) in a long-term study (>100 h)

Continuous application of chemzymes in a membrane reactor: asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone

The application of homogeneously soluble catalysts is limited by the recovery in cases where the price of the catalyst is high. Biological catalysts, enzymes, can be efficiently recycled by means of an ultrafiltration membrane due to their high molecular weight, for example, in the continuously operated membrane reactor. In order to transfer this principle to chemical catalysis, we have attached a transfer hydrogenation catalyst, first invented by Gao and Noyori, to a polymer. The resulting homogeneously soluble, polymer-bound catalyst (chemzyme) can now be retained by ultrafiltration membranes like enzymes. On applying this catalyst in continuously operated membrane reactors, a continuous isopropoxide dosage is necessary in order to compensate deactivation caused by water residues in the reed stream. Thus, high space-time yields up to 578 g L-1 d(-1) and enantioselectivities up to 94% can be achieved. These results were compared to an enzyme catalyzed system consisting or a carbonyl reductase that also utilizes 2-propanol as a hydrogen source for the cofactor regeneration of NADH