Syntheses of homochiral cyanohydrins in an industrial environment : Hydroxy nitrile lyases offer new options

Despite their obvious usefulness, enzymes are only reluctantly used in large-scale industrial fine chemicals syntheses. The enormous progress in enzyme production methods by high-yield fermentation seems to change the status of the enzyme in a biocatalytic process from that of precious material to a readily available catalyst tuneable to the needs of large-scale application with comparatively low process development costs. Lyases are among the enzymes that seem to pass the border from laboratory to industrial use. In collaboration with researchers from the Technical University of Graz DSM Chemie Linz has developed the application of (S)-Hydroxynitrile lyase under industrial conditions.