Control of biocatalysis reactions

Abstract

A process for increasing the rate of biocatalysis reactions, which comprises applying a direct current electric field to a reaction mixture, wherein the reaction mixture and the electrodes used to apply said electric field are separated such that the reaction mixture does not come into contact with said electrodes.

1 . A process for increasing a rate of a biocatalysis reaction, which comprises:
 applying a direct current (DC) electric field to a reaction mixture, wherein the reaction mixture includes an ionic buffer, and electrodes used to apply said electric field are separated from the reaction mixture by a separation membrane of a polarity to prevent transport of the ionic buffer and such that the reaction mixture does not come into contact with said electrodes.   
   
   
       2 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein said electric field is applied for a sufficient time to stimulate the biocatalysis reaction in the reaction mixture. 
   
   
       3 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein said separation membrane is a bipolar ion exchange membrane. 
   
   
       4 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein said electrodes form part of an electrochemical reactor. 
   
   
       5 . A process according to  claim 4 , wherein said electrochemical reactor forms part of an electrodialysis stack, wherein charged organic products in the reaction mixture can be removed by electrodialysis. 
   
   
       6 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein said reaction mixture is contained between the bipolar ion exchange membrane on a cathode-facing side and an anion selective membrane on an anode-facing side of said reaction mixture. 
   
   
       7 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the ionic buffer comprises a cationic buffer, with an organic product forming an anionic component. 
   
   
       8 . A process according to  claim 7 , wherein the DC electric field applied is adjusted to control pH of the reaction mixture. 
   
   
       9 . A process according to  claim 8 , wherein adjustment to the DC electric field is automatically controlled under control of a computer program. 
   
   
       10 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the biocatalysis reaction is selected from a single enzyme biotransformation reaction, a fermentation process and a reaction catalyzed by an isolated enzyme system. 
   
   
       11 . A process according to  claim 1 , wherein the reaction mixture comprises any of growing or resting microbial cultures. 
   
   
       12 . A process according to  claim 11 , wherein said microbial cultures comprise immobilized cultures of yeast, bacteria or fungi. 
   
   
       13 . A process according to  claim 12 , wherein said microbial cultures are immobilized on surfaces or in pores of beads. 
   
   
       14 . A process according to  claim 6 , wherein the ionic buffer comprises a cationic buffer, with an organic product forming an anionic component. 
   
   
       15 . A process according to  claim 6 , wherein the reaction mixture comprises immobilized microbial cultures of yeast, bacteria or fungi. 
   
   
       16 . A process according to  claim 6 , wherein the reaction mixture comprises immobilized microbial cultures on surfaces or in pores of beads. 
   
   
       17 . A process according to  claim 7 , wherein the reaction mixture comprises immobilized microbial cultures of yeast, bacteria or fungi on surfaces or in pores of beads.