Enzymes in industry
Advantages
Work at low temperature
Low fuel costs
Not altered in the reactions
Reusable
Some cases
Enzymes are activated
Beer production
Malting
Amylases activate and break down starch (in barley grains) into maltose (disacharide).
Enzymes are halted
Cooking oil extraction
From seeeds of sunflower, olive trees, soy...
Lipases in the seeds are not allowed to activate
Lipids are preserved
Enzymes are extracted
With cultured m.o. (see below)
Pectinases
Used in food manufacturing
Fruit juices
Softening vegetables
Digestive enzymes for washing powders
They break down stains containing polymers into simple soluble molecules
Amylases
Starch into sugars
Cellulases
Cellulose into sugars
Proteases
Proteins into aminoacids
Lipases
Lipids into fatty acids...
Work at low temperature
Energy saving
Degradable after every washing cycle
Ecofriendly waste products
Living m.o. are used to get some product of interest through their enzymes
M.o. with useful enzymes are cultured and "enslaved"
Called "fermentations"
May be
Real fermentations (anaerobic energy production)
Respirations (aerobic energy production)
Examples of products
Citric acid
Antibiotics
Insulin
The process
M.o. may be genetically modified previously
To increase their production rate
To make them have lower nutritional requirements
Lowers the costs
M.o. are cultured in big tanks (fermentation vessels)
Provided with nutrients
Oxygen only for aerobic m.o.
Under continuous stirring
To even temperatures in the tank
To even the distribution of nutrients in the tank
Under continuous refrigeration
why
Such high metabolic activity (by the m.o.) releases a lot of heat: enzymes , and therefore m.o., would be destroyed
Under continuous monitoring
Temperature
pH