BIOCATALYTIC CONCURRENT PROCESSES

FABRICIO R. BISOGNO; IVÁN LAVANDERA; VICENTE GOTOR

Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology

Jonh Wiley & Sons

Lugar: Hoboken, NJ; Año: 2011; p. 1 - 20

In line with the new governmental initiatives and industrial demands related to the “Green Chemistry” principles, the design of sustainable processes according to them and applicable at industrial scale is highly desirable. One of the possible strategies is to employ multistep chemical synthesis with efficient catalytic reactions that improve the “atom economy” of the process. In this context, concurrent methodologies in which multiple catalysts operate simultaneously in “one pot”, circumventing the time-consuming and yield-reducing isolation and purification of intermediates are gaining momentum nowadays. Thus, elegant examples of tandem or cascade methodologies are being described in order to perform stereoselective processes, such as deracemization protocols of hydroxy derivatives, or the simultaneous coupling of selective reactions to achieve, e.g., interconnected double kinetic resolutions or a desymmetrization plus a kinetic resolution. Many examples deal with oxidoreductases taking advantage of efficient cofactor recycling systems, but other works have shown that enzymes like hydrolases, transferases or lyases can also be employed in these processes with high efficiency. Furthermore, novel cooperative protocols in which an organo- or metal-catalyst is combined with a biocatalyst are opening the scope and possibilities of implementing biocatalysts in integrated multistep synthetic pathways. Some of these examples are discussed focusing on the concept behind, as well as on their possible synthetic applicability.