High research groups

Poiian A, Loubeyre P and Boccara N (eds) 1989 Simple Molecular Systems at Very High Density (New York Pienum) Winter R and Jonas J (eds) 1993 High Pressure Chemistry, Biochemistry and Materials Science (Dordrecht Kiuwer) Proceedings of the annuai conference of the European High Pressure Research Group, the most recent of which is ... 

For a while now, the problem of flow and heat transfer in heated capillaries has attracted attention from a number of research groups, with several applications to engineering. The knowledge of the thermohydrodynamic characteristics of capillary flow with evaporative meniscus allows one to elucidate the mechanism of heat and mass transfer in porous media, to evaluate the efficiency of cooling system of electronic devices with high power density, as well as to optimize MEMS. 

Of course, the influence of organic solvents on enzyme enantioselectivity is not limited to proteases but it is a general phenomenon. Quite soon, different research groups described the results obtained with lipases [28]. For instance, the resolution of the mucolytic drug ( )-trans-sobrerol (11) was achieved by transesteriflcation with vinyl acetate catalyzed by the lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia adsorbed on celite in various solvents. As depicted in Scheme 1.3 and Table 1.5, it was found that t-amyl alcohol was the solvent of choice in this medium, the selectivity was so high ( >500) that the reaction stopped spontaneously at 50% conversion giving both +)4rans-sobrerol and (—)-trans-sobrerol monoacetate in 100% optical purity [29]. 

The research group of Backvall employed the Shvo s ruthenium complex (1) [21] for the racemization. This complex is activated by heat. For the KR they used p-chlorophenyl acetate as the acyl donor in combination with thermostable enzymes, such as CALB [20] (Figure 4.7). This was the first practical chemoenzymatic DKR affording acetylated sec-alcohols in high yields and excellent enantioselectivities. In the best case 100% conversion (92% isolated yield) with 99% ee was obtained. This method was subsequently applied to a variety of different substrates and it is employed (with a different ruthenium complex) by the Dutch company DSM for the large-scale production of (R)-phenylethanol [22]. 

The committee recommends that a steady-state program of 15 research excellence awards in chemical engineering be achieved over 3 years. This new mechanism is described in Chapter 10. Because these awards are intended to fund speculative high-potential research, they will probably work best in the milieu of a small research group. Thus, the committee recommends that they be funded at about Level D. The steady-state cost of the initiative would be 1.5 million. 

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