Recent publications with rotating bed reactors (02/24)

Enzymatic epoxidation in batch and semi batch

Researchers from Åbo Akademi University (Wikström et al.) performed epoxidation of oleic acid using a rotating bed reactor (RBR S2) containing the immobilized CalB; Novozym® 435. By continuously adding the hydrogen peroxide to the reactor (semi batch) the yield was improved over the direct batch operation.

📄 Read the article here!

Source: Wilhelm Wikström, Adriana Freites Aguilera, Pasi Tolvanen, Robert Lassfolk, Ananias Medina, Kari Eränen, and Tapio Salmi, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2023, 62, 9169−9187

Whole cells dramatically stabilized in alginate beads

These catalytically active cells tolerated saltwater conditions and achieved over 90% perillaldehyde conversion in 8 hours. Immobilization in alginate beads dramatically increased the stability; less than 20% activity was lost in one month instead of 50% in two days. The authors found that “the SpinChem® reactor is ideal to be used with cells immobilized in hydrogel beads as catalysts”.

📄 Read the article here!

Source: Silvia Donzella, Concetta Compagno, Francesco Molinari, Francesca Paradisi, and Martina Letizia, React. Chem. Eng., 2023, 8(12), pp. 2963-2966.

Unspecific peroxygenase converts toluene derivates 

Finally, I want to mention an impressive work made with the unspecific peroxygenase (UPO) from Agrocybe aegerita. The authors worked with many toluene derivates as substrates, and eventually they scaled the process up to 120 mL using the RBR S2.

📄 Read the article here!

Source: Yutong Wang, Niklas Teetz, Dirk Holtmann, Miguel Alcalde, Jacob M. A. van Hengst, Xiaoxiao Liu, Mengfan Wang, Wei Qi, Wuyuan Zhang, and Frank Hollmann, ChemCatChem, 2023, 15(13), e202300645.

Closing remarks

If any of these applications gave you some new ideas, or you would like to discuss something completely different, please get in touch with us. We love to develop ideas into processes!