Bioprocess Development

Within bioprocesses, organic compounds are converted by either isolated enzymes or whole-cell biocatalysts. Biotransformations can be differentiated into enzymatic and metabolic bioconversions. A bioprocess is based on a biological catalyst that is used to conduct a chemical reaction leading to a defined product. In the early times of bioprocess engineering, water was used principally for the reaction medium, because it was assumed that a higher stability and activity can be reached in the natural medium of enzymes. Metabolic bioconversions need the metabolic system of living and growing microorganisms, e.g., bacteria, yeasts, or fungi. A goal of systems biology is predictive metabolic engineering, where genes within metabolic pathways are purposefully amplified or deleted based on the consideration of the metabolic network as an entirety. Microreaction technology is an interdisciplinary field combining natural science and engineering. Bioprocess engineering must focus on downstream processing in addition to the reaction progress. Starting at the reaction itself, a selective synthesis circumvents complicated downstream processing. The enzymatic synthesis of fatty acid ester-based care specialties is a prime example of a modern, innovative, and sustainable technology. Effective reactions are characterized by the use of a minimum of reactants but high product amounts. Biocatalytic processes are especially useful to achieve this goal of high atom efficiency. In all bioprocesses, cyclization, retention, and separation of catalyst and product are arbitrative parameters to implement an economically successful bioprocess.