Enzyme cascade reaction engineering

Abstract

Biocatalytic transformations are of growing interest due to their high chemo-, regio-, and enantioselectivity, sustainability, and biocompatibility. In order to build on these advantages, to reinforce them, and not to weaken them, as well as to ensure the fulfillment of economic framework conditions, it is important to harmonize the reaction with its best suitable reactor and operation mode. In this chapter, three ideal reactor types and their biocatalytic conversion equations are presented for different inhibition scenarios, facilitating the proper bioreactor selection. Important aspects in the implementation of an enzymatic cascade are discussed and the introduced equations are exemplarily illustrated for a cascade reaction. In order to highlight different emerging approaches for cascade engineering, miniaturized flow bioreactors are discussed, and examples of recent publications are presented.