Biocatalytic Processes Using Ionic Liquids and Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Biocatalytic processes based on ionic liquids (ILs) and supercritical carbon dioxide are interesting alternatives to organic solvents for designing clean synthetic chemical processes to obtain pure products directly. In such enzymatic processes, the classical advantages of supercritical carbon dioxide to extract, dissolve and transport chemicals are compromised by the denaturing effect that it has on enzymes. On the other hand, ILs have shown themselves to be excellent non-aqueous environments for enzyme catalysis. Biphasic systems based on ILs and supercritical carbon dioxide have been proposed as the first approach to integral green bioprocesses in non-aqueous media, where both the biocatalytic and extraction steps are coupled in an environmentally benign and efficient reaction/separation process. Keywords: biocatalytic processes; ionic liquids; supercritical carbon dioxide; enzymes