FOR 5538:  Multistep Catalytic Production Systems for Fine Chemistry by Integrated Molecular, Material and Process Design (IMPD4Cat)

• Subject Area: Thermal Engineering/Process Engineering ; Chemistry
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 501735683

Fine chemicals are very important as raw materials for the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, polymers, cosmetics and detergent additives. Designing and operating an efficient and sustainable process in accordance with green chemistry principles, i.e. close to zero waste, for the production of a high-value fine chemical is a very demanding task. It involves several challenges: 1) identification of a multi-step chemical transformation path based on highly active, selective and stable catalysts for each step, 2) selection of suitable molecular building blocks to make the final target product, 3) selection of environmentally friendly solvents for all reaction and separation steps, 4) elucidation of the underlying reaction mechanisms and kinetics as a prerequisite for optimal reactor design and operation, 5) identification of efficient separation strategies for catalysts, solvents, unconverted reactants and by-products, 6) establishment of powerful purification methods for the final target product, 7) optimal design of an integrated reaction-separation system, and 8) optimal control of the overall production process to ensure stable operation. The central hypothesis of the proposed DFG Research Unit is that decisions on catalysts, solvents, additives, separation materials, devices and process operating conditions should be included in an integrated design methodology, supporting the simultaneous consideration of all essential variables available on the molecular level, phase level, process unit level and plant level. Thereby one can identify novel fine chemicals’ production processes that feature high productivity, high product quality and low waste. The suggested integrated design methodology will be developed and used for the design and operation of production processes for the multi-step catalytic synthesis of two pharmaceutically or biologically active examples of substance classes: a) homophenylalanine-based compounds, and b) long alkyl chain amino acids and amino alcohols. The chosen research approach requires close interdisciplinary cooperation between experts from the fields of catalysis, technical chemistry, chemical engineering and process systems engineering. Against this background, a team of scientists from Rostock (Prof. Matthias Beller, Prof. Udo Kragl, Dr. Christoph Kubis) and Magdeburg (Prof. Achim Kienle, Prof. Nora Kulak, Prof. Jan von Langermann, Prof. Heike Lorenz, Prof. Andreas Seidel-Morgenstern, Prof. Kai Sundmacher) was formed, who contribute complementary core competencies to the DFG Research Unit.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Coordination Funds (Applicant Sundmacher, Kai )
• Design and development of molecularly-defined catalysts for efficient synthesis of amino alcohol and amino acid precursors (Applicant Beller, Matthias )
• Integrated computer-aided molecular, material and process design for the multistep catalytic conversion of olefins to alpha-amino acids and beta-amino alcohols (Applicant Sundmacher, Kai )
• Multiple in-situ spectroscopic and online chromatographic analysis of liquid phase catalytic processes for automated hybrid data-driven process design, control and optimization (Applicants Kubis, Christoph ;  Seidel-Morgenstern, Andreas )
• Optimization of earth-abundant metal-catalyzed oxidation reactions relevant for the synthesis of amino acids (Applicant Kulak, Nora )
• Selection, design and application of novel biocatalytic reactive crystallization concepts for the preparation of chiral beta-amino alcohols and alpha-amino acids (Applicants von Langermann, Jan ;  Lorenz, Heike )
• Subproject SP4: Selection, design and application of membrane processes for separation of reactions mixtures (Applicant Kragl, Udo )
• Subproject SP7: Self-learning control of the catalytic conversion of olefins to α-amino acids and β-amino alcohols (Applicant Kienle, Achim )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Kai Sundmacher