Large Scale Bioprocess for the Production of Optically Pure L-Carnitine

Summary.

A competitive production method using the biotransformation of 4-butyrobetaine to enantiomerically pure L-carnitine was developed and scaled-up by Lonza. The process produces L-carnitine in 99.5% yield, and >99.9% enantiomeric excess (ee). Continuous and discontinuous processes were developed but the fed-batch process was found to be economically the most favourable process mode.

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1. Lonza AG, 3920, Visp, Switzerland

   Hans-Peter Meyer & Karen T. Robins

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1. Hans-Peter Meyer
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2. Karen T. Robins
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Correspondence to Hans-Peter Meyer.

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Meyer, HP., Robins, K. Large Scale Bioprocess for the Production of Optically Pure L-Carnitine. Monatsh. Chem. 136, 1269–1277 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00706-005-0330-y

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• Received: 22 November 2004

• Accepted: 20 January 2005

• Published: 18 July 2005

• Issue Date: August 2005

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00706-005-0330-y

• Keywords. L-Carnitine; Biotransformation; Enzymes; Large scale production.