Engineered Enzymes Facilitate Efficient Biocatalysis for the
Sustainable
Production of Chiral Amines
Dr Thomas Daussmann , Jan-Dirk Spoering , Dr Marc R . Hayes , Dr Christoph Strunk , Enzymaster Deutschland
In today ’ s market , chemical processing approaches must achieve product quality specifications while also achieving higher sustainability levels . Chemical manufacturers increasingly value ‘ greener ’ strategies . Fortunately , economy and ecology often go hand in hand . A process that can run under ambient temperature , use fewer solvents and / or generate less wastewater significantly reduces the environmental impact and costs . The Enzymaster team has developed methods to produce the two chiral amines ( R ) -α-phenylethylamine ( PEA ) from acetophenone and ( R ) -(+) -1-( 1-naphthyl ) ethylamine ( NEA ) from 1-acetylnaphthalene . The processes were optimised toward high atom efficiency and overall low waste production . Chiral amines are an essential class of molecules in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries because many drugs and drug candidates contain an amine group or functional groups derived from an amine . For example , NEA is an intermediate for synthesising the calcimimetic Cinacalcet API and PEA is used as a chiral auxiliary and chiral building block . Recent patents describing the chemical synthesis of PEA from the ketone acetophenone use expensive transition metal catalysts , such as palladium or ruthenium . These catalysts need to be recycled efficiently to reduce losses and avoid product contamination .
20 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981