Vitamins and Nutraceuticals from the Perspective of Process Research

Abstract

The development of efficient, sustainable low-cost processes is the basis for providing high-quality products for daily life applications in human and animal nutrition. In this account, the importance of chemical process research towards ecologically benign and competitively advantageous processes for the large-scale preparation of various vitamins, nutraceuticals and fine chemicals is highlighted. Selected and representative examples are given, including contributions from collaborations with external partners. General trends include the shift from stoichiometric to catalytic protocols and from batch to continuous processes. In addition, the use of renewable (bio-based) raw materials as an alternative to access key building blocks for the production of vitamins is addressed.