Biocatalysis

PERA, LICIA M; BAIGORÍ MARIO; ASHOK PANDEY; CASTRO G.R

industrial biorefineries- White Biotechnology

Elsevier

Año: 2015; p. 1 - 710

Biocatalysis is an important subspecialty of the white biotechnology used in the manufacture of large variety of chemical products required for the production of medicines and crop protectants, biodiesel, detergents, biosurfactants, food additives, functionalized biopolymers, etc. The industrial biocatalyst world market was estimated to be about U$ 3.3 billion in 2010. It is growing about 6% annually and is expected to reach U$ 4.4 billion in 2015. The market can be divided in many areas based on the industrial uses. Technical biocatalysis is one of the promising segments, particularly in the leather and bioetanol markets, which are expected to grow from U$ 1.0 billion in 2010 to U$ 1.5 billion in2015. The biocatalysis market in the food and food processing industry reached U$ 975 million in 2010. It is expected to grow to 1.3 billion in 2015. The milk and dairy fragment has been the top one in the area with about U$ 400 million in 2009. Therefore, the demand for new and useful biocatalysts is steadily increasing. However, the main challenge is to convert a cellular catalyst into a bioprocess one, able to support the harsh environmental conditions. Hence, efforts have been made with novel approaches to develop the sustainable enzymatic bioprocesses, including reaction medium design, improving enzyme structure at molecular level, biocatalytic design