Continuous-flow SPPS with propylene carbonate cuts DMF reliance for greener peptide manufacturing

Varró, Mándityné Huszka, Erdei, Mándoki and Mándity reported a continuous-flow solid-phase peptide synthesis platform that swaps toxic DMF/NMP for the greener solvent propylene carbonate. Published in Chemistry–Methods (May 2025), the method synthesized both α- and β-peptides at greater than 4-gram scale with good efficiency, pairing the throughput and automation advantages of continuous flow with a lower-toxicity, biodegradable solvent. The work tackles SPPS's chronic environmental weakness — huge volumes of hard-to-dispose polar aprotic solvents and a notoriously high Process Mass Intensity. As GLP-1-driven demand scales peptide manufacturing, greener high-throughput routes are becoming both a regulatory and a cost imperative.