Solvents are necessary for the synthetic reactions that produce the daily-used chemicals. However, their use accounts for a significant proportion of the generated waste, particularly CO2, through their ultimate incineration. Incorporating newly designed solvents to ameliorate such impact is crucial for future, more sustainable synthetic procedures. In this area, Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) have emerged as promising replacements, as they have the potential to be biobased, biodegradable, and tuneable to be adapted in many synthetic routes. DECADES doctoral network conducts research on these DESs, by interdisciplinary training of 10 doctoral candidates (DCs) with intersectoral experience and entrepreneurial mindset to implement sustainability concepts in the European Biotech Sector and make a significant contribution to achieving the GREEN DEAL objectives of the European Union. DECADES´ aim is to apply these 'Safe and Sustainable-by-Design' solvents to increase efficiency and sustainability of industrial biocatalysis, by bridging current proof-of-concept knowledge from academia to industrial applications, and by a holistic exploitation considering solvent design and application through multiple aspects (catalyst, substrate, environmental impact) and along the whole pipeline (upstream/downstream). The scientific approach of DECADES is highly interdisciplinary and brings together biology, chemistry, and process engineering to achieve significantly increased productivity and diminished waste. 10 non-academic partners from high-tech SMEs and large producing companies, and 6 academic institutions, offer an intersectoral and interdisciplinary environment to provide 10 DCs with outstanding employability profiles for the European Biotech Sector, both in academia and industry. DECADES’s training activities span in a transversal form, providing soft skills, training, and hands-on activities to DCs in the form of seminars, events, lectures, and practical exercises. To that end, the expertise from PIs from DECADES – covering industry and academia – as well as external guest lecturers and trainers, is involved. Examples include innovation workshops, presentation skills, and scientific contributions, to cite some of them.
DECADES´ vision is oriented along several main angles, compiled in three scientific work packages (WPs) and another extra one for PhD training development and soft skills acquisition.
WP1 focuses on the design of novel biocatalyst variants – covering a broad range of enzyme types – that can perform reactions efficiently under DESs, with high selectivity and stability. Furthermore, academic insights on the rationale behind such efficiency and stability are acquired, creating relevant knowledge to apply to other solvent or reactive systems.
WP2 designs new DES families, with upgraded properties that are tuned for particular applications. This enables the generation of solvents whose role goes beyond a mere vehicle for synthetic reactions. Examples herein are the creation of media that can act as organocatalysts, that may work as substrate solubilizers, that may be substrate too (2-in-1 concept), and that overall are enzyme-compatible.
WP3 provides research on several selected case studies that may have relevance for future industrial processes. The aim is to combine enzymes from WP1 and media from WP2 – and the generated knowledge thereof – to demonstrate at a pre-competitive level that DES-based media can be trustworthy solutions in future synthetic processes.
