Asymmetric hydrolysis of a meso-diester using pig liver esterase immobilised in hollow fibre ultrafiltration membrane

Pig liver esterase (PLE) was physically immobilised in a polysulphone ultra filtration hollow fibre membrane reactor and used for the repetitive batch two-phase hydrolysis and separation, on a multigram scale, of the meso-dies ter dimethyl cis-cycloxex-4-ene-1,2-dicarboxylate 1 to enantiomerically pur e (1S,2R)-cyclohex-4-ene1,2-dicarboxylic acid monomethyl ester 2, After 25 days, the enzyme still retained its initial activity, which corresponds to 62% of its activity in the free form, and the enantiomeric purity of monoes ter 2 was still higher than 97%. Simple experimental conditions were establ ished for the large laboratory scale preparation of substrate 1 and isolati on of product 2 from the aqueous phase. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.