SPPS: Process improvements to reduce solvent consumption
Expert views
Introducing a new percolation wash concept for solid-phase peptide synthesis .[…]
Peptides have to be washed several times during production. This still requires the use of solvents. Because green chemistry and sustainability are important to us, we compared the two washing processes – percolation and batch – and experimented with the washing volume in order to reduce the use of solvents. We noticed that the wash volume should not be changed too much, otherwise the quality of the peptides would suffer. At an endpoint of 100 ppm of residual piperidine in the discharged liquid phase, we detected that we had excellent peptide quality. At this volume, we found that compared to batch washing, percolation washing can reduce solvent use by 57 percent while maintaining the same quality. As a result, we are now routinely using percolation washing for our production across the PolyPeptide Group. By implementing this change, we reinforce our commitment to reducing the impact on the environment while maintaining the quality of our products.
Dr R. Ravetti Duran, and Dr O. Ludemann-Hombourger, Speciality Chemicals Magazine, Jan/Feb 2022