Abstract
Biocatalysis is nowadays an established technology for the production of chemicals. Biotransformations are performed under mild conditions and can be highly selective; in particular, stereoselectivity is a key issue in most of the bioprocesses developed for transformations of organic molecules. These processes must be associated with efficient and green techniques of extraction. Biocatalysts are currently employed for the production of products in different fields, such as pharmaceuticals or intermediates of their production (e.g., antibiotics, statins, and enantiomerically pure building blocks), fine chemicals (e.g., amino acids and vitamins), and food ingredients (e.g., sweeteners, lipids, and nutraceuticals). Methods based on biocatalysts can further broaden their applicability and meet criteria of sustainability if efficiently employed for the transformation of cheaply available agro-food wastes and surplus, such as starch, molasses, cheap proteins, and lipids. The application of recombinant technologies and protein engineering has dramatically widened the potential of biotransformations. Examples of classical and new biotransformations of agro-food wastes and surplus for the production of industrially relevant chiral molecules are reported; the improvements given by an integrated application of different strategies (molecular biology, extractive systems, immobilization, etc.) for the optimization of the bioprocesses are highlighted.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Comprehensive Biotechnology |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Pages | 491-500 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780444640468 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 17 Jul 2019 |
Bibliographical note
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Keywords
- Agro-food
- Biocatalysis
- Biorefinery
- Biotransformation
- Enzymes
- Fine chemicals
- Microorganisms
- Wastes