1st Edition

Industrial Biocatalysis

Edited By Peter Grunwald Copyright 2015
    1232 Pages 32 Color & 212 B/W Illustrations
    by Jenny Stanford Publishing

    Biocatalysis has become an essential tool in the chemical industry and is the core of industrial biotechnology, also known as white biotechnology, making use of biocatalysts in terms of enzymes or whole cells in chemical processes as an alternative to chemical catalysts. This shift can be seen in the many areas of daily life where biocatalysts—with their environmentally friendly properties—are currently employed.

    Drivers are the big societal challenges resulting from concerns about the global climate change and the need for an assured energy supply. Modern biocatalysis relies to a large extent on the tremendous advances in the so-called omics techniques and the structural elucidation of biomolecules, which have led to synthetic biology and metabolic engineering as new research fields with high application potential for the rational design of enzymes and microbial production strains. In this book, renowned scientists discuss the actual developments in these research fields together with a variety of application-oriented topics.

    Biocatalysts: global market, industrial applications, aspects of biotransformation design and societal challenges

    Making use of newly discovered enzymes and pathways: reaction and process development strategies for synthetic applications with recombinant whole-cell biocatalysts and metabolically engineered production strains.

    Directed evolution of enzymes for industrial biocatalysis

    Strategies to overcome constraints in enzyme evolution and facilitate effective enzyme engineering

    Production of functional isoprenoids through pathway engineering

    Metabolic engineering for the bio-based conversion of CO2 to biofuels

    Mixed microbial cultures for industrial biotechnology: success, chance, and challenges

    Extremophiles and their use in biofuel synthesis

    Industrial applications of halophilic microorganisms

    Non-pathogenic Pseudomonas strains as a platform for industrial biocatalysis

    Use of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the production of high-value chemicals from new carbon sources.

    Applications of enzymes in industrial biodiesel production

    Promiscuous biocatalysts: Applications for synthesis from the laboratory to industrial scale

    Micro-magnetic porous and non-porous biocatalyst carriers

    Robust enzyme preparations for industrial applications

    Hydrolases in non-conventional media: Implications for industrial biocatalysis

    Enreductases from cyanobacteria for industrial biocatalysis

    Cytochrome P450 biocatalysts: current applications and future prospects

    Laccases: green biocatalysts for greener applications

    Lipase-catalyzed epoxidation of fatty compounds and alkenes

    Synthetic potential of dihydroxyacetone uilizing aldolases

    The hydantoinase process: recent developments for the production of non-canonical amino acids.

    Biotechnological approaches to dipeptide production

    Synthetic enzyme cascades for valuable diols and amino alcohols: smart composition and optimization strategies

    Metabolic engineering for the biosynthesis of longevity molecules rapamycin and resveratrol.

    Detergent proteases

    Industrial starch processing

    Algae: a rich source of energy and high-value products

    Enzyme-catalyzed processes in a potential algal biorefinery

    Biocatalytic synthesis of polymers: a contribution to green chemistry

    Bio-based chemicals and materials

    Biography

    Peter Grunwald studied chemistry at the University of Saarbrücken and the University of Hamburg, Germany, where he graduated in the field of high-frequency spectroscopy, and then became a staff member of the Institute of Physical Chemistry. After receiving his PhD in physical chemistry from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hamburg, he founded a biotechnology research group. He was appointed professor in 2001. His research interests focus on the preparation and properties of immobilized enzymes, kinetics of enzymes in organic solvents, and interactions between biocatalysts and heavy metal ions. Prof. Grunwald is also interested in chemical education, including curriculum development.

    "This book provides an actual and comprehensive overview of industrial biocatalysis, written by top scientists from academia and industry. It highlights by means of many examples how biocatalysis increasingly contributes to making the different areas of the chemical industry more sustainable through fostering an ongoing development towards a more bio-based economy. The book is highly recommended to all scientists active in this field as an excellent source for further inspirations and in addition should greatly assist academic lectures in this field."

    —Prof. Yasuhisa Asano, Toyama Prefectural University, Japan