Biocatalysis

Abstract

Biocatalysis, the use of enzymes—either as isolated enzymes or in whole cells—to accelerate chemical transformations, is one of the approaches available to the organic chemist. Key advantages of biocatalysis are its high selectivity and the high rate of chemical transformations at relatively mild reaction conditions, and as a result, the simplified downstream processing and more cost‐effective synthesis. Therefore, it is not surprising that interest in industrial biocatalysis has been on the rise. The aim of this chapter is to provide the process chemist with a general overview of the available enzymes and the chemistries they enable and to discuss concepts in biocatalysis highlighted by selected examples.

Resolution of enantiopure (S)‐1‐(1‐napthyl) ethanol from racemic mixture by a novel Bacillus cereus isolate

“…Biocatalysis is usually performed in an aqueous environment but in some cases can be carried out in solvent mixtures and even in pure organic solvents . As compared to pure enzymes which are very expensive, not readily accessible; require cofactors during the reaction and highly specific to particular substrates . Microorganisms have high potential for inducing many alternatives of innovative and improvised enzyme systems which are stable toward heat, alkali, and acids and capable of converting new substrates to the product.…”