Boosting the Kinetic Efficiency of Formate Dehydrogenase

The efficiency of homogenous liquid biocatalytic reactions depends on the environment of the catalyst (here: an enzyme)
in the solution. This work evaluated the combined effects of temperature, pressure, and co-solvents to increase the kinetic
efficiency of NADH synthesis. NADH is a high-value compound (> 10€/g NADH). The synthesis uses formate as substrate,
which is oxidized in an aqueous solution with the enzyme formate dehydrogenase. The kinetic efficiency could be increased
by 300 % applying a pressure of 2 kbar and a mixture of the co-solvents dextran and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO),
compared to an aqueous buffer solution at 1 bar. The thermodynamic framework based on the equation of state ePCSAFT
allowed correctly predicting the combined effects of high pressure and co-solvent mixture on the kinetic efficiency
without fitting any model parameters to the experimental kinetic data of the co-solvent mixtures.