Reaxa and RohnerChem to develop catalyst technology

UK-based Reaxa and Switzerland's RohnerChem have teamed up to develop the former's encapsulated catalyst (EnCat) catalyst technology for industrial applications in the API and drug-manufacturing sector. Reaxa's EnCat technology, which was invented by Avecia and researchers at Cambridge University, UK, embeds homogeneous catalysts in a 100-200 micron polymer bead matrix, creating discrete vessels in which chemical reactions can take place.

The entry and exit of the reactants and resulting products is limited by the bead's limited pore size, producing a more complete and controllable reaction. This approach offers an improved method of industrial catalysis for drugmakers, specifically by reducing the level of metal ion loss and contamination that often occurs during reaction steps using different catalytic techniques.

Pete Jackson, CEO, Reaxa, explained, ''Standard homogeneous catalysis methods can create crude products that contain up to, for example, 2,000 ppm of palladium, whereas equivalent reactions using EnCat have levels in the 10 ppm range. As a result, many subsequent processing and crystallisation steps can be omitted using EnCat-based catalysis.''