Page 23 - Cascade biocatalysis

XXI

Preface

Sustainability is one of the key issues to enhance, or at least maintain, the quality
of life in our modern society. As it has been codified in 1987 in an official UN
document, a ‘‘sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs’’. Applied to chemical processes, sustainability has generated the concept of
Green Chemistry, for which guidelines have been summarized as the well-known
Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry. 1)
In Europe, this effort has been recognized at the institutional level:
the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem,
http://www.suschem.org) was created in 2004 with the main objective to revitalize
and inspire the European chemistry research, development, and innovation in a
sustainable way. Industrial Biotechnology, also known as White Biotechnology,is
one of the three pillars that support sustainable chemistry nowadays and that are
expected to support it even more profoundly in the future. It is defined as ‘‘the
use of enzymes and micro-organisms to make efficient and sustainable products
in sectors as diverse as chemicals, plastics, food and feed, detergents, paper and
pulp, textiles or bioenergy.’’
Although long and reiterating, this introduction is meant to raise the aware-
ness that the roots and the branches of biocatalysis – as well as its fruits! –
are deeply embedded in modern synthetic chemistry. In fact, the majority of the
above-mentioned Principles of Green Chemistry (PGC) fit perfectly with the peculiar
properties and synthetic application of enzymes, which are Nature’s catalysts. The
contributions collected in this book offer a convincing testimony that biocatalysis
is highly qualified to contribute to the development of future sustainable tech-
nologies. Enzymes are highly efficient catalysts offering superior selectivity (PGC
#9), thereby meeting criteria for atom economy by maximizing the incorporation
of starting materials into the final product (PGC #2) while avoiding unnecessary
and unproductive derivatization, such as the use of temporary protection groups
(PGC #8). Such steps are unavoidable when using conventional synthetic chem-
istry approaches and require additional reagents and generate waste materials,
particularly when utilizing multifunctionalized, bio-based renewable feedstocks

1) P. Anastas, J.C. Warner, Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press (2008).