Membrane Aerated Hydrogenation: Enzymatic and Chemical Homogeneous Catalysis

Among the most successful systems for homogeneous catalysis, hydrogenation catalysts capable of activating molecular hydrogen, take outstanding roles in research laboratories and in industry. To open up the field of continuous catalytic hydrogenations a novel membrane reactor concept was developed and successfully applied for hydrogenations with dihydrogen both for chemical and for enzymatic catalysis. The hydrogenase I of the archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus was utilized for the continuous hydrogenation of NADP+ to NADPH with recycling of the enzyme by means of ultrafiltration. The well known PyrPhos-Rh system was used for the enantioselective synthesis of an amino acid derivative by hydrogenation.