Industry/University Cooperative Research Project: Thermo- dynamics and Transport for Reaction and Recovery of Biomolecules in Aqueous and Non-Aqueous Systems

该项目涉及开发生产高价值和中等价值生物化学品的生物工艺的两个重要领域。第一个涉及使用双水相聚合物系统回收发酵产品。这项研究旨在获得这些溶液的分子热力学性质，并开发相行为和溶质分子在相间分配的预测模型。第二个领域涉及在酶催化反应中使用非水溶剂来提高底物的溶解度。超临界二氧化碳与选择的夹带剂一起被用作溶剂，用于研究几个重要的商业反应的动力学：胆固醇氧化、脂类的酯交换以及各种可以反向进行的水解反应。

This project is concerned with two areas of importance in the development of bioprocesses for the production of high and intermediate-value biochemicals. The first concerns the use of aqueous two-phase polymer systems for the recovery of fermentation products. The research is directed at obtaining the molecular thermodynamic properties of these solutions and developing predictive models for phase behavior and partitioning of solute molecules between phases. The second area concerns the use of non-aqueous solvents for enhancing substrate solubility in enzymatically catalyzed reactions. Supercritical carbon dioxide, alone with selected entrainers, is used as a solvent for studying the kinetics of several commercially important reactions: cholesterol oxidation, interesterification of lipids, and various hydrolytic reactions which can be run "backwards".