ABSTRACT
The most ancient applications may best be described as an art and not as a technology. The scientific developments in biocatalysis go back to the beginning of the 19th century. They were very slow due to a lack of adequate theories and methods. Only late in the 19111 century did there occur a breakthrough and an increase of research activities. A continuous technical development can be traced to the beginning of the 20th century. Again, the industrial development of enzymes was very slow initially. Only with the appearance of the detergent proteases in the 1960’s, did the use of enzymes increase. Subsequently, the first immobilized enzyme products were scaled up to industrial application. Today, the number of successful applications of biocatalysis is rapidly increasing, as will be shown in the subsequent chapters.
1.1 WHAT IS APPLIED BIOCATALYSIS?
