Chapter 1 - Biocatalysis, solvents, and green metrics in sustainable chemistry

Abstract

A sustainable production process should generate minimal waste through the efficient use of (preferably renewable) resources and avoid the use of toxic and hazardous reagents and solvents. This is stimulated by the application of green metrics, such as the E-factor and atom economy, to measure the generation of waste. One way to significantly reduce waste is to replace archaic processes using stoichiometric amounts of reagents with greener catalytic alternatives. Biocatalysis, involving the use of enzymes as catalysts, has many advantages in this respect. The use of organic solvents is another major contributor to waste and substantial reductions in solvent use and avoiding the use of toxic and/or hazardous solvents is the key to sustainability. An important advantage of biocatalysis is, therefore, that it is favored in an aqueous medium. However, this can present problems with hydrophobic substrates, and various approaches to afford resource efficient and sustainable biocatalytic processes are outlined.