Process considerations for the implementation and scale-up of transketolase-catalyzed biocatalytic processes

Transketolase-catalyzed reactions are of great interest to synthetic chemists creating carbon-carbon bonds in a highly stereoselective manner. They can also be incorporated into useful cascades for the production of biologically active molecules. Nevertheless, few of these reactions have been scaled-up and in this chapter the considerations required to systematically implement such a reaction in an industrial production process are discussed, including reactor selection and a workflow for evaluation of operating conditions and key variables. Considerations for enzyme format are also discussed.