Biocatalysts For Industry

Implementing biocatalytic strategies in an industrial setting is a challenging task, especially when commercial scale necessitates a balance between industrial need and economic viability. With invited contributions from a wide range of chemical and pharmaceutical companies, this book bridges the gap between academia and industry. Contributors discuss current processes, types of biocatalysts and improvements, industrial motivation and the key aspects needed for economic success. Focussing on industry related issues, this book will be a useful tool for future research by both practitioners and academics.

The synergy between synthetic biology and biocatalysis is emerging as an important trend for future sustainable processes. This book reviews all modern and novel techniques successfully implemented in biocatalysis, in an effort to provide better performing enzymatic systems and novel biosynthetic routes to (non-)natural products. This includes the use of molecular techniques in protein design and engineering, construction of artificial metabolic pathways, and application of computational methods for enzyme discovery and design. Stress is placed on current ‘hot’ topics in biocatalysis, where recent advances in research are defining new grounds in enzyme-catalyzed processes. With contributions from leading academics around the world, this book makes a ground-breaking contribution to this progressive field and is essential reading for graduates and researchers investigating (bio)catalysis, enzyme engineering, chemical biology, and synthetic biology.

The application of enzymes or whole cells (fermentatively active or resting; microbial, plant, or animal) to carry out selective transformations of commercial importance is the central theme of industrial biocatalysis. Traditionally, biocatalysis has been in the domain of the life scientist or biochemical engineer. However, recent advances in this field have enabled biocatalytic processes to compete head on with, and in some cases out perform, conventional chemical processing. Chemo-biocatalytic systems are being developed thereby combining the most attractive features of bio catalysts, namely high specificity, with those of chemical catalysts, such as high reactivities and wide substrate specificities. Hence, synthetic chemists and chemical engineers are now beginning to use biocatalysts as highly selective reagents in chemical synthesis and processing. This book is about biocatalysts and their past, present, and potential applications in the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. The con cept of the book did not emanate from a meeting. Rather, it is a compila tion of selected examples where biocatalysis either has already made a significant impact in the aforementioned industries, or has the potential to make a substantial contribution. I have been fortunate to have assembled contributions from world-class researchers in the field of biocatalysis. Their timely contributions are sincerely appreciated.

Biocatalysis has become an essential tool in the chemical industry and is the core of industrial biotechnology, also known as white biotechnology, making use of biocatalysts in terms of enzymes or whole cells in chemical processes as an alternative to chemical catalysts. This shift can be seen in the many areas of daily life where biocatalysts—with their environmentally friendly properties—are currently employed. Drivers are the big societal challenges resulting from concerns about the global climate change and the need for an assured energy supply. Modern biocatalysis relies to a large extent on the tremendous advances in the so-called omics techniques and the structural elucidation of biomolecules, which have led to synthetic biology and metabolic engineering as new research fields with high application potential for the rational design of enzymes and microbial production strains. In this book, renowned scientists discuss the actual developments in these research fields together with a variety of application-oriented topics.

Implementing biocatalytic strategies in an industrial setting at a commercial scale is a challenging task, necessitating a balance between industrial need against economic viability. With invited contributions from small and large-scale chemical and pharmaceutical companies, this book bridges the gap between academia and industry. Contributors discuss current processes, types of biocatalysts and improvements, industrial motivation and key aspects to economically succeed. With its focus on industry related issues, this book will be a useful tool for future research by both practitioners and academics.

Biocatalysts are increasingly used by chemists engaged in fine chemical synthesis within both industry and academia. Today, there exists a huge choice of high-tech enzymes and whole cell biocatalysts, which add enormously to the repertoire of synthetic possibilities. Practical Methods for Biocatalysis and Biotransformations 2 is a "how-to" guide that focuses on the practical applications of enzymes and strains of microorganisms that are readily obtained or derived from culture collections. The sources of starting materials and reagents, hints, tips and safety advice (where appropriate) are given to ensure, as far as possible, that the procedures are reproducible. Comparisons to alternative methodology are given and relevant references to the primary literature are cited. This second volume – which can be used on its own or in combination with the first volume - concentrates on new applications and new enzyme families reported since the first volume. Contents include: introduction to recent developments and future needs in biocatalysts and synthetic biology in industry reductive amination enoate reductases for reduction of electron deficient alkenes industrial carbonyl reduction regio- and stereo- selective hydroxylation oxidation of alcohols selective oxidation industrial hydrolases and related enzymes transferases for alkylation, glycosylation and phosphorylation C-C bond formation and decarboxylation halogenation/dehalogenation/heteroatom oxidation tandem and sequential multi-enzymatic syntheses Practical Methods for Biocatalysis and Biotransformations 2 is an essential collection of biocatalytic methods for chemical synthesis which will find a place on the bookshelves of synthetic organic chemists, pharmaceutical chemists, and process R&D chemists in industry and academia.

This reference book originates from the interdisciplinary research cooperation between academia and industry. In three distinct parts, latest results from basic research on stable enzymes are explained and brought into context with possible industrial applications. Downstream processing technology as well as biocatalytic and biotechnological production processes from global players display the enormous potential of biocatalysts. Application of "extreme" reaction conditions (i.e. unconventional, such as high temperature, pressure, and pH value) - biocatalysts are normally used within a well defined process window - leads to novel synthetic effects. Both novel enzyme systems and the synthetic routes in which they can be applied are made accessible to the reader. In addition, the complementary innovative process technology under unconventional conditions is highlighted by latest examples from biotech industry.

Because enzyme-catalyzed reactions exhibit higher enantioselectivity, regioselectivity, substrate specificity, and stability, they require mild conditions to react while prompting higher reaction efficiency and product yields. Biocatalysis in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industries examines the use of catalysts to produce fine chemic