Degussa is constantly expanding its expertise in the area of “white” biotechnology. One of the outcomes of our research is the development of “designer cells” for efficient reduction of ketones to alcohols on a production scale.
Our requirement was a process that would deliver a very high conversion and enantiomeric excess (>99 percent), while running at a substrate concentration of >150 g/litre.
This was achieved by building a “designer cell” containing the three key ingredients:

• Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH)
• A cofactor (NADH)
• Glucose dehydrogenase to recycle the cofactor (GDH)

Using this method, a chiral alcohol for a pharmaceutical intermediate was successfully scaled up to several 100’s kg scale.

The process has been adapted to produce important aroma alcohols such as cinnamyl alcohol. By using a biocatalytic route this material can now be labelled as “natural grade”

The “designer cell” concept received the Degussa Innovation Award 2005 in the category “New or Improved Process”.