Ulber / Sell White Biotechnology

1. Auflage 2007
ISBN: 978-3-540-45696-4
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 105, 313 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Advances in Biochemical Engineering - Biotechnology

Preface

Hardly any other term in the field of biotechnology has been the subject of so much discussion among experts aswhite biotechnology at present. This termis an alias for "industrial biotechnology," an already established "heavyweight" that focuses on the production of the most diverse products (bulk and fine chemicals, enzymes, food and animal feed additives, pharmaceutically active substances and agrochemicals, auxiliary agents for process industries, etc.). Insomesegments,white biotechnologyhas already captured leading market positions:

– In recent years the annual biotechnological production of amino acids exceeded one million tons.
– In vitamin production there have been several recent cases of a changeover from a chemical to a biotechnological synthesis process, a trend that is expected to increase.
– During the last 10 years the market volume for enzymes has increased by 50%.
– The successful launch of polylactide marked white biotechnology’s breakthrough into the field of polymers and synthetics.

Today crude oil is the most important energy source and the most widely used chemical raw material. Both primary industry and polymer chemistry currently depend to a great extent on oil. However, it is only a matter of time before theworld’s oil reserves are depleted.Almost all studies presented to date agree that peak oil, i.e. the point in time when oil extraction reaches its highest level, will take place in the first half of the present century. The increasingly difficult development of new sources of oil have triggered initiatives worldwide to reduce national dependence on oil imports.

To summarize, there is no long-termalternative to developing a technology based firmly on renewable resources and industrial biotechnology may offer various solutions in this field. The tremendous pace of progress in the field of molecular biology has provided an unprecedented and promising launching pad for the development of further industrially relevant biocatalysts. Simultaneously, bioprocess engineering know-how is supporting ef.cient process development from titer plate format to shaker flasks to industrial scale. Thus, in principle, a basis exists for accelerating the development of new industrial bioprocesses in parallel with all disciplines concerned. In this book authors from different scienti.c and business areas of industrial biotechnology aim to give you an overview of the state of the art and ongoing developments.

Frankfurt and Kaiserslautern, October 2006
Dieter Sell Roland Ulber

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ulber, Roland

Sell, Dieter

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Raw Materials.- Screening Systems.- Industrial Enzymes.- Building Blocks.- Biorefineries – Multi Product Processes.- Enabling Technologies: Fermentation and Downstream Processing.- Future Aspects of Bioprocess Monitoring.

Leseproben

Building Blocks (p. 133-134)

Lutz Hilterhaus, Andreas Liese
Institute for Technical Biocatalysis, Hamburg University of Technology, Denickestr. 15, 21073 Hamburg, Germany

Abstract This contribution illustrates the versatility of fundamental approaches in industrial biotransformations. The applicability of biotechnology in organic synthesis on an industrial scale is discussed, followed by an overview of historical development and future progress. This chapter depicts three different approaches for the use of biocatalysts in production processes: non-chiral synthesis, asymmetric synthesis, and racemic and dynamic resolution. Applications for whole cells and isolated enzymes as catalysts are introduced. Finally, critical but optimistic conclusions are given.

Keywords Building blocks · Non-chiral synthesis · Asymmetric synthesis · Racemic resolution

1 Introduction

Based on the analysis of technology, market trends, and current R&,D activities, McKinsey and Festel (in their very optimistic studies [1, 2]) estimate that biotechnology can be applied to the production of 10–20% of all chemicals by the year 2010. However, the rate at which biotechnology processes are introduced and used in different chemical markets varies. To prepare such products as .ne chemicals, for example, sugars are converted by tailormade microorganisms, enzymes, or chemico-physical treatment [3]. These may come from degradation of raw materials, including byproducts from agricultural sources and households. Typical products of industrial biotransformations include enzymes, vitamins, flavors, and fine chemicals such as chiral building blocks for the pharmaceutical industry [4]. These biochemicals may be divided into bulk chemicals and fine chemicals according to the amount produced and the price per ton.

This chapter illustrates the versatility of fundamental approaches in industrial biotransformation and is not expected to give a complete overview. For further information the reader is referred to recent literature [5–11]. For a clearer picture the section on synthesis (Sect. 4) has been subdivided into the three different approaches: non-chiral synthesis (Sect. 4.1), asymmetric synthesis (Sect. 4.2), and racemic and dynamic resolution (Sect. 4.3). These examples are once again subdivided into the application of whole cells or isolated enzymes as catalyst.

2 Biocatalysis and Chemical Building Blocks

The economics of speci.c processes are important for the success of biocatalytic steps in the chemical industry. A biocatalytic step will always be compared with the conventional organic synthesis. Only if the biocatalytic step is saving money, by higher selectivity and lower process costs compared to established chemical processes, will it prevail. However, the target will not be the replacement of a single chemical step by a biocatalytic one, rather the target will be the total redesign of the synthesis route to comprise a sequence of chemical and biocatalytic steps. This was successfully demonstrated by DSM in a total redesign of the synthesis route to cephalexin. The original process started with the fermentation of Penicillinum chrysogenum yielding penicillin G. This was followed by eight chemical steps yielding the final antibiotic cephalexin. In the present process, the latter classical route was replaced by two biocatalytic and one chemical step. In the near future this synthesis will be totally redesigned so that the product cephalexin is directly obtained from one fermentation step starting from a carbohydride source. The sequence of three biotransformations in series will be carried out in the fermented cells, integrating one expandase and two acylase steps. This demonstrates the enormous power introduced by industrial biotechnology into the synthesis of chemicals.