Enzyme reaction engineering: synthesis of antibiotics catalysed by stabilized penicillin G acylase in the presence of organic cosolvents.

By using very active and very stable penicillin G acylase (PGA)--agarose derivatives we have studied the industrial design of equilibrium-controlled synthesis of lactamic antibiotics. In the presence of high concentrations of organic cosolvents we have carried out the direct enzymatic condensation of phenylacetic acid and 6-aminopenicillanic acid to yield the model antibiotic penicillin G. We have mainly studied the integrated effect of different variables that define the reaction medium on a number of parameters of industrial interest:time course of antibiotic synthesis, highest synthetic yields, stability of the catalyst, and solubility and stability of substrates and products. The main variables tested were the nature and concentration of the organic cosolvent, pH, and temperature. The effects of the variables tested on different parameters were quite different and sometimes opposite. Hence, the optimal experimental conditions for antibiotic synthesis catalysed by PGA were established, as a compromise solution, in order to obtain good values for every parameter of industrial interest. These conditions seem to be important parameters for scale-up (e.g. we have been able to reach more than 95% of synthetic yields with productivities around 0.5 tons of model antibiotic per year per liter of catalyst).