Adsorption of trypsin on commercial silica gel

Recent advances in β-galactosidase and fructosyltransferase immobilization technology

The highly demanding conditions of industrial processes may lower the stability and affect the activity of enzymes used as biocatalysts. Enzyme immobilization emerged as an approach to promote stabilization and easy removal of enzymes for their reusability. The aim of this review is to go through the principal immobilization strategies addressed to achieve optimal industrial processes with special care on those reported for two types of enzymes: β-galactosidases and fructosyltransferases. The main methods used to immobilize these two enzymes are adsorption, entrapment, covalent coupling and cross-linking or aggregation (no support is used), all of them having pros and cons. Regarding the support, it should be cost-effective, assure the reusability and an easy recovery of the enzyme, increasing its stability and durability. The discussion provided showed that the type of enzyme, its origin, its purity, together with the type of immobilization method and the support will affect the performance during the enzymatic synthesis. Enzymes' immobilization involves interdisciplinary knowledge including enzymology, nanotechnology, molecular dynamics, cellular physiology and process design. The increasing availability of facilities has opened a variety of possibilities to define strategies to optimize the activity and re-usability of β-galactosidases and fructosyltransferases, but there is still great place for innovative developments.

Esterification of polyglycerol with polycondensed ricinoleic acid catalysed by immobilised Rhizopus oryzae lipase

The enzymatic method for synthesising polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR), a food additive named E-476, was successfully carried out in the presence of immobilised Rhizopus oryzae lipase in a solvent-free medium. The great advantage of using the commercial preparation of R. oryzae lipase is that it is ten times cheaper than the commercial preparation of R. arrhizus lipase, the biocatalyst used in previous studies. The reaction, which is really a reversal of hydrolysis, takes place in the presence of a very limited amount of aqueous phase. Immobilisation of the lipase by physical adsorption onto an anion exchange resin provided good results in terms of activity, enzyme stability and reuse of the immobilised derivative. It has been established that the adsorption of R. oryzae lipase on Lewatit MonoPlus MP 64 follows a pseudo-second order kinetics, which means that immobilisation is a process of chemisorption, while the equilibrium adsorption follows a Langmuir isotherm. The use of this immobilised derivative as catalyst for obtaining PGPR under a controlled atmosphere in a vacuum reactor, with a dry nitrogen flow intake, allowed the synthesis of a product with an acid value lower than 6 mg KOH/g, which complies with the value established by the European Commission Directive. This product also fulfils the European specifications regarding the hydroxyl value and refractive index given for this food additive, one of whose benefits, as proved in our experiments, is that it causes a drastic decrease in the viscosity (by 50 %) and yield stress (by 82 %) of chocolate, comparable to the impact of customary synthesised PGPR.