The Biocatalytic Nitro Hydrogenations team, led by Professor Kylie Vincent, has been awarded one of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Horizon Prizes, which celebrate discoveries and innovations that push the boundaries of science. The team is a collaboration between Professor Vincent’s group and HydRegen, a spin-out from the University of Oxford.
The prize recognises the group’s achievements in developing a greener process to synthesise amine-containing chemicals which are widely used in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and many other areas of the chemical industry.
Turning nitro compounds into amines is a vital step in making many medicines, agrochemicals and materials. However, current industrial methods often rely on wasteful chemicals or expensive precious metal catalysts, which can be inefficient and lack selectivity.
Professor Vincent said: 'Our new biological catalyst technology provides a selective and sustainable way of preparing amine compounds which avoids heavy metals, and offers environmental and cost advantages over conventional methods. The system exploits an enzyme called hydrogenase, which can split hydrogen gas to release electrons and protons. The key to our success was finding a way to channel these protons and electrons into nitro-functional groups to facilitate their reduction to amines.'
It is wonderful to have recognition for the diverse, yet crucial, contributions from so many people who have worked on different aspects of this catalyst system – from the very first demonstration, through to our experiments to understand the mechanism, right through to large-scale application.
The team report that their system can cut costs by 40% and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a factor of three compared to traditional metal-based processes. Following support from Oxford University Innovation (OUI) to patent this innovation, the technology is now licensed to HydRegen who have made tremendous progress in scale-up for commercial application. Ultimately, this innovation could allow cleaner, cheaper and more sustainable manufacturing - from essential medicines like paracetamol to complex pharmaceutical ingredients.
You can find out more about other Oxford winners of the Royal Society of Chemistry's prizes this year here.
