The membrane reactor in the fine chemicals industry Original Research Article

The enzyme-membrane reactor (EMR) is a well established mode for running continuous biocatalytic processes. One of Degussa’s strengths is expertise with EMRs on scales of five orders of magnitude, up to production scale of several hundred tons per year. In this article, an analogous chemzyme membrane reactor (CMR) is introduced. Current status with respect to relevant catalytic quantities such as turnover frequencies (TOFs), total turnover number (TTN), and catalyst half-life (τ1/2) is discussed. First experiments with a pilot-scale CMR have been conducted. However, for easy scalability, more durable nanofiltration (NF) or ultrafiltration (UF) membranes as well as improved moisture control are necessary.