Enzymes are biocatalysts that offer many advantages compared to traditional chemical catalysts. They enable synthesis at mild reaction conditions and offer great stereo-, regio- and enantioselectivity, which leads to efficient production of highly pure complex products. However, due to enzyme instability at harsh industrial conditions, their immobilisation is crucial for their implementation at industrial scale. This way we increase enzyme stability and at the same time enable longer use of enzymes in continuous processes. One of the promising immobilisation techniques is enzyme binding on magnetic materials via different functional groups. External magnetic field is then used to hold magnetic materials in the reactor. As for the latter, microreactor technology is the most important innovation in recent years. It offers excellent control of reaction conditions, better heat and mass transfer as well as less waste and side products compared to traditional technologies. To reduce the negative environmental impact of industrial production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, deep eutectic solvents (DESs), classified as affordable green solvents, are increasingly used. They offer an environmentally friendly alternative to organic solvents. Because of a broad range of possible components, DESs are very flexible in achieving preferred solvent properties.
In this research, different DESs were prepared and ranked based on their ability to solubilize substrate of the selected transamination, namely benzyl acetone, and regarding the activity of the amine transaminase enzyme ATA-v1. The immobilisation of enzyme on magnetic microparticles that were functionalized with glutaraldehyde was optimized. The biocatalyzed transamination reaction was performed in a selected DES composed of choline chloride, urea and phosphate buffer using microflow system. Thereby a sustainable and efficient production of 1-methyl-3-phenylpropylamine, an industrialy attractive chiral amine, was developed.
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