Chapter 2. Green Biotransformations under Flow Conditions

Abstract

The development of continuous green biocatalytic processes is a highly useful toolbox for the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals that has grown tremendously over the past decade. This chapter highlights some of the most relevant advances in the field of biocatalytic transformations under flow conditions in both conventional and in neoteric solvents (e.g. ionic liquids, ILs; supercritical fluids, SCFs), as alternative non-aqueous reaction media. Several examples are provided (e.g. KR and DKR of sec-alcohols and amines, C–C bond formation, reduction, transamination, trans-esterification, etc.) where the use of continuous flow techniques enables the development of more efficient processes and multiple reaction steps to be combined into a single continuous operation.