Summary and Conclusion
In this contribution we presented the process development of the
IRED-catalyzed synthesis of (S )‑2‑methylpyrrolidine with a
special emphasis on an ion exchange-based downstream-processing
approach. The biocatalytic reaction was partly optimized resulting in a
substrate concentration of 150 mmol·L-1 and
500 mmol·L-1 of d‑glucose at 30 °C for 24 h.
Additionally, a variety of adsorbent resins for the effective removal of
both product and substrate from the reaction solution were investigated
and Amberlite IR-120(H), IRN-150, Dowex Monosphere 650C and Dowex
Marathon MSC were found to be the most effective cation exchange resins.
After further studies, the resin Dowex Monosphere 650C was successfully
used for the downstream-processing of a scaled up reaction to produce
highly pure (>99%) (S )‑2‑methylpyrrolidine without
any further purification steps. The developed process concept in this
study, namely the integration of ion exchange resin materials into
downstream-processing, is efficient and very simple to perform.