ABSTRACT
Many authors support the hypothesis that enzyme technology is a promising means of moving toward cleaner industrial production and offers a great potential for bioeconomy development. Parawira (2011) gives an updated review of the biotechnological advances to improve biogas production by microbial enzymatic hydrolysis of different complex organic matter for converting them into fermentable structures, for example: the improvement of biogas production from
1 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the microbial enzymes are widely applied in multiple industries like food, feed, detergent, tanning, textiles, laundry, cosmetics, chemical, biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries, as well as environmental engineering. These applications account for over 80% of the global market of enzymes (Kumar et al. 2014). Over 500 industrial products are being produced using enzymes (Adrio & Demain 2014). The total market for industrial enzymes reached $3.3 billion in 2010. Food and beverage enzymes comprise the largest segment of the industrial enzymes with revenues of nearly $1.2 billion, while the market for enzymes for technical applications alone making up $1.1 billion. Proteases currently constitute the largest market, although carbohydrases and lipases are the faster growing segments. Estimates of future demand vary, with future markets of $6 billion-$8 billion is expected in 2016 (BBC Research 2015). Enzymes form a crucial pillar of industrial biotechnology and can be used in a wide range of bioindustrial
lignocellulolytic materials, one of the largest and renewable sources of energy, after pretreatment with cellulases and cellulase-producing microorganisms, lipid-rich wastewaters pretreatment with lipases and lipase-producing microorganisms, and the enzymatic treatment of mixed sludge by added enzymes prior to anaerobic/Aerobic Digestion (AD). Aerobic microbial pretreatment can be carried out with naturally occurring mixed cultures. The concept behind this pretreatment is that some aerobic organisms produce cellulose, hemicellulose and/or lignin degrading enzymes rapidly and in large amounts, and these solubilise the substrate. The arguments in favor of enzymes to pretreat complex biomass are compelling. The high cost of commercial enzyme production still limits application of enzymatic hydrolysis in full-scale biogas production plants, although production of lowcost enzymes from microorganisms or using of microorganisms with specific enzyme activities are addressing this issue.
