Glycolic Acid → Glyoxylic Acid

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

A 300-mL EZE-Seal stirred autoclave reactor equipped with Dispersimax Impeller (Autoclave Engineers) was charged with 100 mL of a solution containing glycolic acid (0.50M), aminomethylphosphonic acid (0.375M), isobutyric acid (0.100M, HPLC internal standard), and flavin mononucleotide (0.01 mM) at pH 8.3, and the solution cooled to 5° C. To the reactor was then added 30 g of E. coli transformant (25.2 IU glycolate oxidase and 39,900 IU catalase), and the mixture stirred at 1000 rpm, which bubbled oxygen through the mixture via the action of the turbine impeller, and at 5° C. under 120 psig of oxygen. The reaction was monitored by taking a 0.40 mL aliquot of the reaction mixture at regular intervals, filtering the aliquot using a Millipore Ultrafree-MC 10,000 NMWL Filter Unit, and analyzing the filtrate by HPLC. After 19 hours, the yields of glyoxylic acid, oxalic acid, and formic acid were 8.6%, 8.3%, and 1.1%, respectively, with 57.3% glycolic acid remaining. The recovered activities of microbial glycolate oxidase and catalase were 10% and 68% of their initial values, respectively.

Provenance & Evidence