Enzymatic hydrolysis of penicillin and in situ product separation in thermally induced reversible phase-separation of ionic liquids/water mixture

•Ionic liquids at low concentration showed activation effects on penicillin amidase.•Ionic liquid/water two-phase systems allow the in situ products separation.•Thermally induced reversible phase-separation of LCST ionic liquid/water mixture enables efficient product separation.

Enzymatic hydrolysis of penicillin G to produce 6-aminopenicillanic acid, key intermediate for the production of semisynthetic β-lactam antibiotics, is one of the most relevant example of industrial implementation of biocatalysts. The hydrolysis reaction is traditionally carried out in aqueous buffer at pH 7.5–8. However, the aqueous rout exhibits several drawbacks in enzyme stability and product recovery. In this study, several ionic liquids (ILs) have been used as media for enzymatic hydrolysis of penicillin G. The results indicated that hydrophobic ILs/water two-phase system were good media for the reaction. In addition, a novel aqueous two-phase system based on the lower critical solution temperature type phase changes of amino acid based ILs/water mixture was developed for in situ penicillin G hydrolysis and product separation. For instance, hydrolysis yield of 87.13% was obtained in system containing 30 wt% [TBP][Tf-ILe] with pH control (pH 7.6). Since the phase-separation of this medium system can be reversible switched from single to two phases by slightly changing the solution temperature, enzymatic hydrolytic reaction and product recovery were more efficient than those of aqueous system. In addition, the ILs could be reused for at least 5 cycles without significant loss in hydrolysis efficiency.