New Trends and Methods in Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Biocomposites and Biopolymer Waste

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Biocatalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 5814

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Institute of Chemistry, Jan Długosz University, Armii Krajowej Ave. 13-15, 42 201 Częstochowa, Poland
Interests: 1. New ways to use starch and cereal in the environmental engineering processes (collectors of heavy metal ions, soil stabilizers, drilling muds, biofuels)
2. Catalytic properties of ceramic materials containing Li ions and metal transition ions in the process of thermal decomposition botanical origin systems
3. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes, fulerenes, and graphene functionalized with organophosphate anions of selenoacids and tioacids as potential electrode materials in lithium-ion batteries
4. Organic disulfide derivatives and lithium salts of organic tiooxoheteroacids as components of analogs of lithium-sulfur batteries or lithium-anionic batteries
5. Advanced materials for hydrogen storage systems on the basis of new super-light lithium alloys
6. Hybrid materials for hydrogen storage systems based on carbon nanotubes and new super-light lithium alloys
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Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Food Technology, University of Agriculture in Krakow, 30149 Cracow, Poland
Interests: organic synthesis; nanoparticle synthesis; synthesis; composites; materials chemistry; language; nanomaterials synthesis; nanoparticles; nanomaterials; material characterization
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is a growing interest in the replacement of plastics by natural biocomposites and bionanocomposites. A rapid increase in the number of these composites brings a new challenge – safe and advantageous utilization and recycling of packaging and other products based on natural biopolymers. One of the possibilities is the use of enzymatic hydrolysis with the use of modern methods allowing to advance and control the process. There are various important research directions in these studies including immobilization of enzymes, use of a microwave field, linearly polarized light, low-temperature plasma and other physicochemical methods of enzyme activation.

The aim of this special edition is to promote new physicochemical methods that may accelerate and improve the efficiency of the enzymatic hydrolysis, which could optimize the management of the increasing number of biomass and biopolymer-based packaging.

Prof. Dr. Wojciech Ciesielski
Prof. Dr. Karen Khachatryan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • bio-nanocomposites

  • enzymatic hydrolysis
  • enzyme activation
  • enzyme immobilisation
  • biomass
 

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 24502 KiB  
Article
Biodegradable Composites with Functional Properties Containing Biopolymers
by Miroslawa Prochon, Szymon Szczepanik, Oleksandra Dzeikala and Robert Adamski
Catalysts 2022, 12(1), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12010077 - 11 Jan 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2285
Abstract
There is a major focus on natural biopolymers of bacterial, animal, or plant origin as ecological materials, replacing petrochemical products. Biologically derived polylactide (PLA), polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) possess interesting properties, but they are currently too expensive for most applications. Therefore, researchers [...] Read more.
There is a major focus on natural biopolymers of bacterial, animal, or plant origin as ecological materials, replacing petrochemical products. Biologically derived polylactide (PLA), polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) possess interesting properties, but they are currently too expensive for most applications. Therefore, researchers try to find other biopolymers that are both durable and cheap enough to replace plastics in some applications. One possible candidate is gelatin, which can be transformed into a thin, translucent film that is flexible and has stable and high mechanical properties. Here, we present a method of synthesizing a composite material from gelatin. For preparation of such material, we used gelatin of animal origin (pig skin) with the addition of casein, food gelatin, glycerin, and enzymes as biocatalysts of chemical modification and further extraction of gelatin from collagen. Compositions forming films with homogeneous shapes and good mechanical properties were selected (Tensile strength reaches 3.11 MPa, while the highest value of elongation at break is 97.96%). After administering the samples to microbial scaring, the composites completely decomposed under the action of microorganisms within 30 days, which proves their biodegradation. Full article
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19 pages, 3559 KiB  
Article
Production and Purification of Novel Hypocholesterolemic Peptides from Lactic Fermented Spirulina platensis through High Hydrostatic Pressure-Assisted Protease Hydrolysis
by Guan-Wen Chen and Meng-Hsuan Yang
Catalysts 2021, 11(8), 873; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11080873 - 21 Jul 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2790
Abstract
This research focuses on the proteolytic capacity of Spirulina platensis and their hypocholesterolemic activity via the 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGR) inhibitory activity. To select suitable proteases for releasing peptides with high HMGR-inhibiting activity from S. platensis, eight commonly used commercial proteases were [...] Read more.
This research focuses on the proteolytic capacity of Spirulina platensis and their hypocholesterolemic activity via the 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGR) inhibitory activity. To select suitable proteases for releasing peptides with high HMGR-inhibiting activity from S. platensis, eight commonly used commercial proteases were used in protease hydrolysis under high hydrostatic pressure (HHP, 100 MPa or 0.1 MPa) at 50 °C for 24 h. The Peptidase R group had the highest inhibitory capacity (67%). First, S. platensis was fermented with seven mixed lactic acid bacteria for 5 h at 42 °C. This was followed by the addition of Peptidase R under high hydrostatic pressure (100 MPa at 50 °C) for 0–6 h of enzymatic hydrolysis (HHP-FH-PR6) to determine the hydrolytic capacity of S. platensis protein. As the hydrolysis time extended to 6 h, the peptide content increased from 96.8 mg/mL to 339.8 mg/mL, and the free amino acid content increased from 24 mg/mL to 115.2 mg/mL, while inhibition of HMGR increased from 67.0% to 78.4%. In an experimental simulation of in vitro gastrointestinal digestion, the IC50 of HHP-FH-PR6G on HMGR was 3.5 μg peptide/mL. Peptides with inhibitory activity on HMGR were purified, and their sequences were identified as Arg-Cys-Asp and Ser-Asn-Val (IC50: 6.9 and 20.1 μM, respectively). Full article
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