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The main driver for the widespread application of enzymes is their small environmental footprint. Many traditional chemical conversions used in various industries suffer from inherent drawbacks from both an economic and environmental viewpoint. Non-specific reactions can afford low product yields, copious amounts of waste and impure products.
Environmental biotechnology can simply be described as "the optimal use of nature, in the form of plants, animals, bacteria, fungi and algae, to produce renewable energy, food and nutrients in a synergistic integrated cycle of profit making processes where the waste of each process becomes the feedstock for another process". [3]
-Enzymes are environmentally benign, being completely degraded in the environment. -Most enzymes typically function under mild or biological conditions, which minimizes problems of undesired side-reactions such as decomposition, isomerization , racemization and rearrangement , which often plague traditional methodology.
Microbial enzymes are widely utilized as biocatalysts in fields such as biotechnology, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals. Metagenomic data serve as a valuable resource for identifying novel CUEs from previously unknown microbes present in complex microbial communities across diverse ecosystems.
Some enzymes are used commercially, for example, in the synthesis of antibiotics. Some household products use enzymes to speed up chemical reactions: enzymes in biological washing powders break down protein, starch or fat stains on clothes, and enzymes in meat tenderizer break down proteins into smaller molecules, making the meat easier to chew.
Industrial enzymes are enzymes that are commercially used in a variety of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemical production, biofuels, food and beverage, and consumer products. Due to advancements in recent years, biocatalysis through isolated enzymes is considered more economical than use of whole cells.
These processes are chemical networks that use a series of biochemical reactions and enzymes that allow cells to convert raw materials into molecules necessary for the cell's survival. Metabolic engineering specifically seeks to mathematically model these networks, calculate a yield of useful products, and pin point parts of the network that ...
Lignin-modifying enzymes benefit industry as they can break down lignin; a common waste product of the paper and pulp industry. These enzymes have been used in the refinement of poplar as lignin inhibits the enzymatic hydrolysis of treated poplar and Lignin-modifying enzymes can efficiently degrade the lignin thus fixing this problem. [4]