Development of Continuous Enzymatic Production Using a Continuous Oscillatory Baffled Reactor

这是化学工程的一个项目。随着对可持续性和减少工业过程碳足迹的关注日益增加，生物催化越来越被视为解决这些问题的一种方法。此外，酶促生产的材料还可以受益于更少的下游加工步骤，并且可以具有更高的质量。然而，通常在较温和的反应条件和较长的反应时间之间存在权衡，特别是在大规模进行时。因此，在不影响产量的情况下进行生物催化反应的技术对于禾大实现酯类等关键产品的绿色生产至关重要。连续振荡挡板反应器（COBR）被认为是一种可用于优化酶促反应同时保持产量的技术。这个BBSRC/Croda博士项目旨在建立在Croda在生物催化反应方面的现有知识和与Ni教授在COBR中开发新型连续生产的基础上。最初，将开发过程的基本原理，反应动力学和混合和混合阶段的影响的理解。将评估市售酶的活性，无论是单独使用还是与其他酶组合使用。将评估使用游离酶与支持酶的成本影响，并考虑COBR的布局，以去除水（或副产物）和回收酶。此外，有可能开发在线分析，以连续跟踪反应。

This is a project in Chemical engineering.With an increased focus on sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint of industrial processes, biocatalysis is increasingly seen as a solution to these problems. Furthermore, material produced enzymatically may also benefit from fewer downstream processing steps and may be of higher quality. However, there is often a trade-off between milder reaction conditions and longer reaction times, particularly when done at scale. Therefore, technologies that could allow biocatalytic reactions to occur without having to compromise on throughput are crucial in enabling Croda to establish greener production of key product groups such as esters.The Continuous Oscillatory Baffled Reactor (COBR) has been identified as a technology that could be used to optimise enzymatic reactions whilst maintaining throughput. This BBSRC/Croda PhD project aims to build upon Croda's prior knowledge in biocatalytic reactions and the development of novel continuous production in the COBR with Prof Ni. Initially, an understanding of the fundamentals of the process, the reaction kinetics and the effect of mixing and mixing phases will be developed. The activity of commercially available enzymes will be assessed, both on their own and in combination with others. The cost implications of using free enzyme(s) versus supported enzyme(s) will be evaluated and the layout of the COBR for water (or side-product) removal and recover of enzyme will also be considered. Furthermore, there is potential to develop in-line analysis to follow the reaction continuously.