The rise of continuous flow biocatalysis – fundamentals, very recent developments and future perspectives

TLDR

The biocatalysis community has seen a dramatic rise in studies employing enzymes in continuously operated flow reactors, motivated by the opportunity to merge the enhanced mass transfer and resource‑efficient synthesis of micro‑scale flow chemistry with the high selectivity of biocatalysis. This review surveys recent (2018‑2020) developments in continuous biocatalysis and outlines future perspectives, including process analytical technologies and digitalization. The authors describe the fundamentals of continuously operated reactors, emphasizing enzyme‑catalyzed reactions, and explain how these systems enable efficient biocatalytic processes.

Abstract

Biocatalysis community has witnessed a drastic increase in the number of studies for the use of enzymes in continuously operated flow reactors. This significant interest arose from the possibility of combining the strengths of the two worlds: enhanced mass transfer and resource efficient synthesis achieved in flow chemistry at micro-scales and excellent selectivities obtained in biocatalysis. Within this review, we present very recent (from 2018 to September 2020) developments in the field of biocatalysis in continuously operated systems. Briefly, we describe the fundamentals of continuously operated reactors with a special focus on enzyme-catalyzed reactions. We devoted special attention on future perspectives in this key emerging technological area ranging from process analytical technologies to digitalization.