Primer on Bioproducts - BIOCAP Canada

Similar to conventional fossil fuel-based plastics, polylactic acid isdurable and can be shaped and moulded to create a number ofuseful products, ranging from grocery bags to toys. It can be usedas a textile and can readily replace nylon, polyester and polystyrene.Plastics made from petroleum products are responsible forworldwide landfill and other pollution problems. While polylacticacid plastics are also slow to degrade in the environment, work isbeing done to blend this material with cornstarch or resin to makeit more biodegradable, according to the US Department ofAgriculture. These plastics require far less energy to produce thanconventional plastics. Researchers are also studying ways toproduce polylactic acid from tough stems, husks and woodyleftovers (i.e., cellulose) from farming and forestry.Enzymes as Industrial AgentsEnzymes are large, organic helper molecules that assist and speedup the chemical reactions necessary for life. These (mainly) proteincatalysts grab the chemicals involved in a reaction and bring themtogether, letting go again when the desired reaction has occurred.In some cases, industry has been able to isolate these chemicalmatchmakers from the plants, animals and micro-organisms inwhich they naturally occur, and to put them to work. Enzymescan carry out very specific tasks, so enzyme-mediated chemicalprocesses can be highly efficient. Some enzyme-mediatedprocesses use less energy and produce less waste thanconventional industrial chemistry.Through genetic engineering or by “molecular evolution” (i.e.,rapidly “evolving” enzymes through a process that imitatesnatural evolution and selection), industry can modify and directthe work of enzymes to help with entirely new chemical reactionsor to work in specific conditions, such as high temperatures andhigh acidity.Enzymes at WorkThe global market for industrialenzymes is valued at more than $1billion annually, according to the OECD.It continues to grow by about 10 percent per year. Increasingly, enzymesare playing a pivotal role in industrialprocesses around the world.Right now, for example, enzymes canoften be found in laundry detergentto better remove stains. They arealso used to convert cellulose tosugar, to bleach paper, to curdlemilk for cheese, and to improve theconsistency of flour in bread making.Iogen Corporation (Canada) —Ottawa-based Iogen Corporationhas developed an enzyme hydrolysistechnology that readily breaks downcellulose — the tough, woody materialfound in straw, corn stalks, woodand orchard trimmings — so that itcan be converted to bioethanol fuel.Ethanol from biological sources hasbeen promoted as a fuel alternativethat can help reduce the greenhousegas emissions associated withgasoline. One problem has beenthat the only easy way to getethanol from plants is to convert itfrom starchy plants, such as cornand grain. Iogen, which has built asubstantial business developingnovel industrial uses for naturalenzymes, is now able makeenvironmentally friendly fuel fromthe parts of food crops traditionallyunderused or abandoned in thefields. Iogen’s demonstration-scaleplant for producing “EcoEthanol” canPRIMER ON BIOPRODUCTS35