Assessment of process configurations to combine enantioselective chromatography with enzymatic racemization

Enantioselective chromatography is nowadays a reliable tool for single enantiomer production from a racemate. The recovery of the distomer by racemization and recycling is a promising method to tackle the 50% yield constraint and to increase the productivity. In this paper three process configurations are compared. The production of enantiopure mandelic acid and methionine enantiomers exploiting different enzymes for racemization are evaluated as part of different chromatographic process configurations. First, the benefits of conventional simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography in contrast to a single column batch separation unit are assessed in integrated configurations. Then, a concept of coupling the racemization with a simpler three-zone SMB unit, where one regeneration zone is removed, is evaluated.