Biocatalysts

Biocatalysts are the study of the chemical process in the biological systems. It is a process or a natural catalyst like enzymes to perform chemical transformation while exposing it with organic compounds. Whereas, the advancement in biotechnology and the evolution in molecular engineering has made the laboratory synthesised non-natural enzyme possible and thus it enables the development of proteins which could catalyse small molecules. Such transformations may be impossible for development through classical synthetic organic chemistry. Biocatalysts play a vital role in the chemical industry, and the enzyme is a critical tool in the field of chemical synthesis. Over a decade, protein has been exploited in food industries, pharmaceutical industry, cosmetic, textile and paper industries. Besides, enzymatic methods are biocompatible to the environment and very cost-effective, but at the same time, it is limited by its instability, low shelf-life and non-reproducible. To overcome the adverse effects of natural enzymes, the enzymes are immobilised for enhancing performance. As the immobilisation offers high stability in operational conditions and the proteins has effective control on the process. For immobilisation, traditional techniques like hydrogels, sol-gel methods, organic microparticles and silica mesoporous are utilised. Therefore, to further boost the efficiency, it is necessary to incorporate experimental design in identifying novel biomaterials that have a high surface-to-volume ratio with uniform pore size and tuneable structure to shape the physical and chemical environment.