Flow chemistry helps enhance biocatalysis processes

Professor Rodrigo de Souza explained: “Our main aim is to take existing batch processes and optimise them under continuous flow conditions. For example, we have been able to transfer a cascade reaction – involving chemical catalysis followed by biocatalysis and a final chemical catalysis – from batch to continuous flow, eliminating the laborious task of isolating each intermediate. This dramatically reduced the reaction time without compromising selectivity and is more efficient, giving us a greater yield. Using continuous flow processes also avoids causing mechanical damage to the biocatalyst, so it can be recycled many more times than with batch reactions.”

“We have been using the Asia system for several years, and it helped us to become the first group at the University – and in Brazil – to develop biocatalysed continuous flow reactions. It is a very user-friendly system, and the wide range of flow rates offered by the Asia Syringe Pump and the platform’s modular design provide us with the flexibility we need. For example, we have the freedom to incorporate a FLLEX (Flow Liquid Liquid EXtraction) unit if we need to purify a product by liquid-liquid extraction. Asia is the ideal solution for our research.”