Types and Application Value of Enzyme Engineering

As a biocatalyst, enzyme has been widely used in various production fields of light industry. In recent decades, with the continuous technological breakthroughs in enzyme engineering, it has become more and more widely used in industry, agriculture, medicine and health, energy development and environmental engineering.

Food processing applications

The biggest use of enzymes in the food industry is starch processing, followed by dairy processing, fruit juice processing, baked goods and beer fermentation. Related enzymes such as amylase, glucose isomerase, lactase, rennet, protease, etc. account for more than half of the enzyme preparation market.

Enzymes that help and promote food digestion have become the main direction of the food market, including enzymes that promote protein digestion (pineapple proteases, pepsin, trypsin, etc.) and enzymes that promote cellulose digestion (cellulase, glycanase, etc.), Enzymes that promote lactose digestion (lactase) and enzymes that promote fat digestion (lipase, esterase), etc.

Application in light industry

The application of enzyme engineering in the light industry mainly includes: detergent manufacturing (enhancement of detergency), fur industry, gelatin manufacturing, collagen fiber manufacturing (adhesive), toothpaste and cosmetics production, papermaking, photosensitive material production, waste water processing and feed processing, etc.

Medical applications

Recombinant DNA technology has promoted the mass production of various medically valuable enzymes. The variety of enzymes used in clinical practice is gradually increasing. In addition to being used as a conventional treatment, enzymes can also play a medical role as certain components of medical engineering. For example, in an extracorporeal circulation device, enzymes are used to remove blood waste to prevent thrombosis and enzyme-controlled drug release systems in the body. In addition, enzymes, as clinical in vitro detection reagents, can quickly, sensitively and accurately determine certain metabolites in the body, and will also be an important application of enzymes in medicine.

Energy development

Under the general trend of developing new energy sources all over the world, the use of microbial or enzyme engineering technology to produce fuel from organisms is also a new way people are exploring. For example, the use of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, starch and other raw materials in the wastes of plants, crops, and forestry products to produce gas fuels such as hydrogen and methane and liquid fuels such as ethanol and methanol. In addition, the development of petroleum resources is a problem.

Environmental Engineering

Enzyme engineering, also known as protein engineering, refers to the industrial purpose of setting certain reactors and reaction conditions, using the catalytic function of enzymes to catalyze chemical reactions under certain conditions to produce products or services that human need.

While science and technology are highly developed, environmental purification, especially the purification of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage, has a very important significance as a measure to protect nature.

Of the existing wastewater purification methods, biological purification is often the lowest cost and most feasible. The metabolic process of microorganisms can use certain organic substances in wastewater as a required source of nutrition. Therefore, the use of enzymes in microorganisms can transform organic substances in wastewater into usable small molecular substances, and at the same time achieve the purpose of purifying wastewater. People have used genetic engineering techniques to create highly efficient strains, and immobilized living microbial cells and other methods have achieved significant results in wastewater treatment and environmental protection.