Development of Continuous Enzymatic Production Using a Continuous Oscillatory Baffled Reactor

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.