A Process Concept for High-Purity Production of Amines by Transaminase-Catalyzed Asymmetric Synthesis: Combining Enzyme Cascade and Membrane-Assisted ISPR

For the amine transaminase (ATA)-catalyzed synthesis of chiral amines, the choice of donor substrate is of high importance for reaction and process design. Alanine was investigated as an amine donor for the reductive amination of a poorly water-soluble ketone (4-phenyl-2-butanone) in a combined in situ product removal (ISPR) approach using liquid-membrane extraction together with an enzyme cascade.

This ISPR strategy facilitates very high (>98%) product purity with an integrated enrichment step and eliminates product as well as coproduct inhibition. In the presented proof-of-concept alanine shows the following advantages over the other frequently employed amine donor isopropyl amine: (i) nonextractability of alanine affords high product purity without any additional downstream step and no losses via coextraction, (ii) higher maximum reaction rates, and (iii) broader acceptance among ATAs.