ABSTRACT
Department of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Santa Maria, Av. Roraima, 1000, Santa Maria 97105-900, Brazil.
* Corresponding author: mazutti@ufsm.br
Amylases are one of the most important enzymes in present-day biotechnology due to their wide range of applications in numerous industrial processes such as in the food, textiles, paper and bioethanol industries. They are used for starch hydrolysis in the starch liquefaction process that converts starch into fructose and glucose syrups. They are also used as a partial replacement for the expensive malt in the brewing industry, to improve fl our in the baking industry, and to produce modifi ed starches for the paper industry. In addition to this, they are used to remove starch in the manufacture of textiles (desizing) and as additives to detergents for both washing machines and automated dishwashers (Pandey et al. 2000a, Gangadharan et al. 2006).
