PhD defence D. (Donato) Calabrese

Biocatalytic strategies for green chemistry

Enzyme cascades, alternative energy input and protein engineering for selective synthesis

Modern society depends on chemicals: for medicines, plastics, fragrances, and materials. Unfortunately, many of these chemicals are still made using processes that rely on fossil resources, harsh reagents, and a lot of energy, often producing significant waste. This thesis explores a different route: using enzymes (nature’s catalysts) to build valuable molecules in a cleaner way, powered by renewable electricity and hydrogen.

A major challenge in enzyme-based manufacturing is that many enzymes need “reducing power” to work, usually supplied by expensive cofactors that are consumed during the reaction. The work in this thesis develops and tests systems that recycle these cofactors efficiently by using hydrogen as the ultimate energy source, reducing cost and waste. These strategies are applied to transform plant-derived molecules (including lignin-related compounds) and to produce nitrogen-containing building blocks, which are common in pharmaceuticals.

Overall, the thesis shows how combining biocatalysis with smart cofactor recycling, and, when useful, electrochemical and microbial platforms, can move chemical manufacturing toward processes that are more sustainable, scalable, and economically realistic, without sacrificing performance.

Supervisors:
prof. dr. S. (Sandy) Schmidt,
prof. dr. L. Lauterbach,
prof. dr. G.J. (Gerrit) Poelarends