Almac Sciences and HydRegen successfully complete first scale up of their joint development project

Joint project to develop sustainable chemical processes funded by UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) and Innovate UK (IUK)

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, in partnership with HydRegen, has completed the first scale up demonstration of the joint Almac Sciences – HydRegen bio-manufacturing route to a critical commodity chemical, achieving >99.9% conversion in industrially relevant timeframes in a kilo-lab hydrogenation facility.

The demonstration combines Almac Sciences’ Carbonyl Reductase (CRED) enzyme with HydRegen’s proprietary enzyme platform with a ‘lead’ for clean and efficient carbonyl-to-alcohol conversion. This demonstration takes the HydRegen platform for enabling biocatalytic hydrogenation closer to large-scale manufacturing and showcases its capabilities for supporting a more energy, cost and resource efficient chemicals sector.

The project, funded by UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) and Innovate UK (IUK) alongside private investors, was launched 18 months ago to develop and scale up the HydRegen technology for more sustainable commodity chemical manufacturing and subsequent implementation into new chemical processes.

Prof. Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation at Almac Sciences said: “I am very pleased to see the high conversion achieved by the team using the HydRegen technology coupled with the Almac CRED enzyme.  I look forward to running this process under flow conditions and showcasing the benefits of running this bioreduction.”

Click here for more detailed information on the joint project.