Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur Street, Ottawa, Canada K1N 6N5.
Biotechnol Adv. 2012 Jul-Aug;30(4):913-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2012.01.020. Epub 2012 Jan 28.
Enzymatic hydrolysis of pre-treated lignocellulosic biomass is an ideal alternative to acid hydrolysis for bio-ethanol production, limited primarily by pre-treatment requirements and economic considerations arising from enzyme production costs and specific activities. The quest for cheaper and better enzymes has prompted years of bio-prospecting, strain optimization through genetic engineering, enzyme characterization for simple and complex lignocellulosic feedstock, and the development of pre-treatment strategies to mitigate inhibitory effects. The recent shift to systematic characterizations of de novo mixtures of purified proteins is a promising indicator of maturation within this field of study, facilitating progression towards feedstock assay-based rapid enzyme mixture optimization. It is imperative that international standards be developed to enable meaningful comparisons between these studies and the construction of a database of enzymatic activities and kinetics, aspects of which are explored here-in. Complementary efforts to improve the economic viability of enzymatic hydrolysis through process integration and reactor design are also considered, where membrane-confinement shows significant promise despite the associated technological challenges. Significant advancements in enzyme technology towards the economic conversion of lignocellulosic biomass should be expected within the next few years as systematic research in enzyme activities conforms to that of traditional reaction engineering.
预处理木质纤维素生物质的酶水解是生物乙醇生产的一种理想的酸水解替代方法，但主要受到预处理要求和酶生产成本及特定活性带来的经济因素的限制。寻找更廉价、更好的酶促使人们进行了多年的生物勘探，通过遗传工程优化菌株，对简单和复杂木质纤维素原料的酶进行特性分析，并开发预处理策略以减轻抑制作用。最近，对新纯化蛋白混合物进行系统表征，这是该研究领域成熟的一个有希望的指标，有助于基于原料分析的快速酶混合物优化。必须制定国际标准，以便在这些研究之间进行有意义的比较，并构建酶活性和动力学数据库，本文探讨了其中的一些方面。通过工艺集成和反应器设计来提高酶水解的经济可行性也是一项重要的考虑因素，尽管存在相关的技术挑战，但膜限制显示出了巨大的潜力。随着酶活性的系统研究符合传统反应工程，预计在未来几年内，酶技术将在木质纤维素生物质的经济转化方面取得重大进展。
