Bioprocess intensification for the effective production of chemical products

The further implementation of new bioprocesses, using biocatalysts in various formats, for the synthesis of chemicals is highly dependent upon effective process intensification. The need for process intensification reflects the fact that the conditions under which a biocatalyst carries out a reaction in nature are far from those which are optimal for industrial processes.

In this paper the rationale for intensification will be discussed, as well as the four complementary approaches used today to achieve bioprocess intensification. Two of these four approaches are based on alteration of the biocatalyst (either by protein engineering or metabolic engineering), resulting in an extra degree of freedom in the process design.

To date, biocatalyst engineering has been developed independently from the conventional process engineering methodology to intensification. Although the integration of these two methodologies has now started, in the future synergistic integration should enable many new opportunities for bioprocesses for the production of chemicals.