Andrés Illanes - Böcker

Enzyme biocatalysis is a fast-growing area in process biotechnology that has expanded from the traditional fields of foods, detergents, and leather applications to more sophisticated uses in the pharmaceutical and fine-chemicals sectors and environmental management. Conventional applications of industrial enzymes are expected to grow, with major opportunities in the detergent and animal feed sectors, and new uses in biofuel production and human and animal therapy.In order to design more efficient enzyme reactors and evaluate performance properly, sound mathematical expressions must be developed which consider enzyme kinetics, material balances, and eventual mass transfer limitations. With a focus on problem solving, each chapter provides abridged coverage of the subject, followed by a number of solved problems illustrating resolution procedures and the main concepts underlying them, plus supplementary questions and answers.Based on more than 50 years of teaching experience, Problem Solving in Enzyme Biocatalysis is a unique reference for students of chemical and biochemical engineering, as well as biochemists and chemists dealing with bioprocesses. Contains: Enzyme properties and applications; enzyme kinetics; enzyme reactor design and operation 146 worked problems and solutions in enzyme biocatalysis.

This book was written with the purpose of providing a sound basis for the design of enzymatic reactions based on kinetic principles, but also to give an updated vision of the potentials and limitations of biocatalysis, especially with respect to recent app- cations in processes of organic synthesis. The ?rst ?ve chapters are structured in the form of a textbook, going from the basic principles of enzyme structure and fu- tion to reactor design for homogeneous systems with soluble enzymes and hete- geneous systems with immobilized enzymes. The last chapter of the book is divided into six sections that represent illustrative case studies of biocatalytic processes of industrial relevance or potential, written by experts in the respective ?elds. We sincerely hope that this book will represent an element in the toolbox of gr- uate students in applied biology and chemical and biochemical engineering and also of undergraduate students with formal training in organic chemistry, biochemistry, thermodynamics and chemical reaction kinetics. Beyond that, the book pretends also to illustrate the potential of biocatalytic processes with case studies in the ?eld of organic synthesis, which we hope will be of interest for the academia and prof- sionals involved in R&D&I. If some of our young readers are encouraged to engage or persevere in their work in biocatalysis this will certainly be our more precious reward.