A Handbook on High Value Fermentation Products, Volume 2

Human Welfare

Saurabh Saran, Vikash Babu, Asha Chaubey, Saurabh Saran, Vikash Babu, Asha Chaubey

• Publisher: Wiley-Scrivener
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781119554837
• eBook ISBN: 9781119555483
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Engineering General
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Written by a group of world-renowned experts, the second volume in this groundbreaking set continues where the first volume left off, focusing on fermentation products that contribute to human welfare across a variety of industries.

Green technologies are no longer the "future" of science, but the present. With more and more mature industries, such as the process industries, making large strides seemingly every single day, and more consumers demanding products created from green technologies, it is essential for any business in any industry to be familiar with the latest processes and technologies. It is all part of a global effort to "go greener, " and this is nowhere more apparent than in fermentation technology.

This second volume in the groundbreaking new set, High Value Fermentation Products, focuses on industries that a concerned with human welfare, including the leather industry, textiles, pharmaceutical and medical, food processing, and others. Covering topics such as chitin and chitosan, microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates, propanediol, and many others, the editors and contributors have contributed to an extremely important facet of chemical and process engineering and how to move these industries into a much more sustainable and environmentally conscious direction. From converting waste into apparel to creating healthier foods and more effective medicines, this is truly a monumental work that is a must-have for any chemical engineer, scientist, or chemist.

Chapter 1
Challenges and Opportunities for the Production of Industrial Enzymes by Fermentation

Andrés Illanes

School of Biochemical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso Av. Brasil 2085, Valparaíso, P.O. Box 4059, Valparaíso, (Chile)

Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Enzymes have been used as industrial catalysts for over a century now. Plant and animal tissues and fluids have been gradually replaced by microorganisms as sources of enzymes, because of the advantages of intensive production by fermentation at high productivity and under controlled conditions. Genetic engineering has allowed the production of enzymes from any origin in microbial hosts, including higher organisms, non-culturable microbes and metagenomic pools. Complementarity, protein engineering tools allow producing enzyme variants with improved features as process catalysts. Enzyme production by fermentation is reviewed from a process perspective, and strategies for building up enzyme catalysts for process applications are presented considering the evolution of biocatalysis from rather simple reactions of hydrolysis to more complex reactions of organic synthesis where stringent conditions impose new demands for enzyme performance. Advances in the field as well as challenges both in the production and utilization of microbial enzymes are discussed.

Keywords: Microbial enzymes, biocatalysis, immobilized enzymes, protein engineering

1.1 Introduction

1.1.1 Sources of Enzymes as Process Catalysts

Enzymes are the catalysts of life. The metabolism of all living cell forms depends on enzymes since they allow the biochemical reactions to proceed at a sustained pace at the mild conditions required for cell integrity. Enzymes are complex molecules that have evolved to act with an outstanding molecular precision, being both specific in terms of substrate recognition and selective in terms of the reaction catalyzed [1]. These are outstanding properties that make enzymes attractive catalysts for chemical processes.

However, as process catalysts, enzymes should perform efficiently under conditions usually far apart from physiological. This is a major challenge and most efforts in the last 50 years have been devoted to making these metabolic catalysts robust enough to withstand the usually harsh conditions of an industrial process of biotransformation [2]. The industrial use of enzymes dates back to the early years of the last century. At that time, most enzymes used were extracted from plant tissues and from animal organs [3]. Some of these early industrial enzymes from plant and animal origin are still being produced in significant amounts. This is the case of the plant proteases papain and bromelain, which are used in food and beverage processing and also in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products [4, 5], and several lipases and proteases extracted from animal tissues that are used in food and leather processing, and also in some pharmaceutical products [6, 7]. Main industrial enzymes are listed in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Commonly used industrial enzymes and their applications.

Enzyme	Source	Application
	Glycosidases
α-amylase	mold	bakery, confectionery, brewery,first-generation bioethanol
α-amylase	bacteria	starch liquefaction, detergent, fabrics desizing, first-generation bioethanol
α-arabinofuranosidase	yeast, mold	wine making
β-amylase	plant, bacteria	glucose syrup, brewery
cellulase	mold	juice extraction and clarification, detergent, denim, second-generation bioethanol
β-galactosidase	yeast, mold	delactosed milk and dairy products, whey upgrading
β-glucanase	mold	animal feed supplement, brewery
β-glucosidase	yeast, mold	wine making
glucoamylase	mold	glucose syrup
invertase	yeast, mold	confectionery
naringinase	mold	juice debittering
pectinase	mold	juice clarification and extraction, baby foods, wine making
phytase	bacteria	animal feed supplement
xylanase	mold, bacteria	wood pulping and bleaching, bioethanol
	Proteases
alkaline protease	bacteria	detergent, leather tanning and dehairing, stickwater treatment
aminopeptidase	mold, bacteria	protein hydrolyzate debittering
bromelain	Ananas comosus stem	anti-inflammatory and burn healing preparations, drug absorption
chymosin	animal, recombinant yeast and mold	cheese-making
neutral protease	mold, bacteria	baking, protein hydrolyzate
papain	Carica papaya latex	yeast and meat extracts, brewery, protein hydrolyzates, meat tenderizing, tanning, digestive aids, skin wound healing preparations
pepsin	animal	cheese-making
	Other Hydrolases
lipases	animal, yeast, fungi, bacteria	flavor enhancer, detergent, biodiesel
aminoacylase	mold	food and feed fortification
penicillin acylase	mold, bacteria	β-lactam antibiotics
urease	bacteria	alcoholic beverages, urea removal
enzymes	Non-hydrolytic
glucose isomerase	bacteria, actinomycetes	high-fructose syrup
glucose oxidase	mold	food and beverage preservation
catalase	bacteria	food preservation, peroxide removal
nitrile hydratase	bacteria	acrylamide, nicotinamide
aspartate ammonia lyase	bacteria	aspartic acid

Most of the enzymes listed are hydrolases and even though most of these industrial applications are mature technology, technological improvements are still ongoing. Highly resistant enzymes for laundry (proteases, lipases and amylases), intensive use of enzymes in animal feeding (phytases, β-glucanases) and, above all, enzymes used for biofuel production (amylases, cellulases, hemicellulases, lipases), are major areas of development already having a strong impact on the enzyme market.

As seen in Table 1.1, most of these industrial enzymes are of microbial origin, mostly from bacteria, yeasts and molds, so its production is tightly bound to fermentation technology. The development of submerged fermentation and its success in the large-scale production of penicillin and other antibiotics triggered the production of enzymes by microbial fermentations that started to displace the former plant and animal enzymes, so that by 1960 30% of the enzymes were already produced from microbial strains, and two decades later the situation had reversed and more than 70% were produced intensively and independent of season and climate in well-controlled industrial fermentation processes.

Up to now, living cells are the only source of biocatalysts. The creation of synthetic molecules that mimic the active sites of enzymes (enzyme mimics) has been pursued in organic chemistry as a way of solving some of the restrictions of natural enzymes, like high production cost, narrow substrate specificity and propensity to degradation. Small molecular weight active site constructs (chemzymes) and catalysts based on molecular imprinting in synthetic polymers, and also in some inorganic matrices like silica and zeolites, with products and transition state analogues (abzymes...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• About the Editors
• Chapter 1: Challenges and Opportunities for the Production of Industrial Enzymes by Fermentation
• Chapter 2: Biotechnology of Leather: An Alternative to Conventional Leather Processing
• Chapter 3: Enzyme Catalysis: A Workforce to Productivity of Textile Industry
• Chapter 4: Current Trends in the Production of Ligninolytic Enzymes
• Chapter 5: Asava-Arishta: A Multi-Advantageous Fermented Product in Ayurveda
• Chapter 6: Production and Applications of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
• Chapter 7: Functional Foods and Their Health Benefits
• Chapter 8: Industrially Important Biomolecules From Cyanobacteria
• Chapter 9: Augmenting Bioactivity of Plant-Based Foods Using Fermentation
• Chapter 10: Probiotic Intervention for Human Health and Disease
• Chapter 11: Saccharomyces - Eukaryotic Probiotic for Human Applications
• Chapter 12: Bioactive Polysaccharides Produced by Microorganisms: Production and Applications
• Chapter 13: Shikimic Acid: A Compound of Industrial Interest with Respect to Swine/Avian Flu
• Chapter 14: 1,3-Propanediol: From Waste to Wardrobe
• Chapter 15: Biomedical and Nutraceutical Applications of Chitin and Chitosan
• Chapter 16: Microbial Polyhydroxyalkanoates: Current Status and Future Prospects
• List of Contributors
• Index
• End User License Agreement