ENZYME IMMOBILIZATION (pt. 2)

APPLICATIONS OF IMMOBILIZED ENZYMES:

A) FOOD INDUSTRY:

• Immobilized enzymes are of enormous importance for the processing of food sample. The food industry requires purified enzymes, however during the process of purification the enzymes denature. Therefore, I.E are used as the immobilization makes the enzyme stable. The application of concerned enzyme in the immobilized state has greatly enhanced the scope of lactose hydrolysis, whey processing, skimmed milk production, amino acid production etc.
•  A number of processes have been introduced in recent times. Among these are the use of immobilized cells containing glucose isomerase for the production of high fructose syrup. Glucose amylase for the production of glucose from starch is frequently used in an immobilized state. The enzyme beta- galactosidase from yeast is now being used in immobilized form for splitting of lactose to glucose and galactose. Large scale process for the immobilization of invertase has been developed for the splitting of sucrose to glucose and fructose.
• A number of processes for amino acid production have been developed using immobilized enzymes or cells. The penicillin acylases are intracellular enzymes produced by several m/o (both bacteria and fungi). This group of enzymes is involved mainly in the industrial production of 6-aminopenicillanic acid . In addition. penicillin acylase can also be employed in other useful bio- transformations, such as peptide synthesis. 

B) ANTIBIOTIC PRODUCTION

The prime challenge for the industrial execution of enzymatically produced biologically relevant antibiotics is the advanced performance of chemical processes used for antibiotic production. Enzyme based routes offer many advantages over the conventional chemical methods, like its an environment friendly approach as it evades organic chloride solvents, and it works at room temp. The antibiotic penicillin can be produced by using an immobilized enzyme from the culture of penicillium production cultures in fermentation.

C) MEDICINE:

The medical field has been transformed in the area of reliability, precision, manpower and time due to the introduction of IE in the form of proteins, receptors, signal molecules, antibodies etc. The major advantage of enzyme immobilization in biomedical is that the free enzymes are consumed by the cells and thus are inactive for prolonged use, however, the IE remains stable to stimulate the growth and to repair the defect of the concerned tissue. The enzymes when combined with the biomaterials provide biological function. Even in the case of cancer therapy the enzymes are delivered to the oncogenic sites with the new improved methods.

D) ANALYTICAL BIOCHEMISTRY:

An immobilized system can be used in the development of a precise and sensitive biochemical assay. The basic principle is that the enzyme acts on the substrate and a decrease in substrate conc. , increase the product conc. can be followed, using one of many assay methods. The reaction can be followed spectrophotometrically or photometrically.

E) BIODIESEL:

Biodiesel is mono-alkyl  esters of long chain fatty acids. Biodiesel is produced by the esterification reaction involving triglycerides and alcohol in the presence of catalyst. Recently, lipases catalyzed trans-esterification reactions have became attractive for biodiesel production since the glycerol (by-product of the reaction) can be easily removed and the recovery of bio-diesel is easy. However, the high production cost of lipases is the major hindrance in the commercial production (large scale) of biodiesel. The objective behind the use of IE for biodiesel production is to make the process more economical by reducing the cost of enzyme production as the IE could be reused for many cycles.

F) BIOREMEDIATION:

The discharge of waste water containing high conc. of toxic and reactive dyes is a well established problem. The conventional methods (chemical and microbial) of dye degradation have their own limitations. Recent studies have indicated that an enzymatic approach has involved much attention in the removal of these toxic pollute from the aqueous solutions (like lake, pond and river). Currently, some enzymes (e.g., peroxidases) have been immobilized on some inexpensive support have been reported to be highly effective in decolorizing reactive textile dyes compared to their soluble counterparts as the IE could be used for multiple cycles.

G) TEXTILE INDUSTRY:

The textile industry has clearly demonstrated with time the potential and effective application of enzymes such as cellulases, amylases, cutinases etc. These enzymes are microbial in origin and are of immense importance in the textile industry has switched from harsh chemical methods, causing pollution (damage to fabric, to mild enzymatic processes. However, the processing of fabrics with enzymes require high temp. and high pH, and the free enzyme are unstable under such reaction conditions. Hence, enzyme immobilization came into picture, as it not only provides stability to the enzyme, it also brings down the working cost of the enzyme.